A devastated pensioner, William Mulaudzi (66), better known as Nndwambi, is still staying and sleeping in a makeshift house in the remote area of Tshimbupfe in the Vuwani district outside Thohoyandou. Since the floods of 2000, he has been waiting for the RDP house that he alleges he had been promised.

His three mud huts collapsed during the flood disaster in 2000. Two of the walls fell over and his furniture was damaged.

Mulaudzi said that he registered for a house along with the other flood victims. Not long afterwards, a bricklayer and sub-contractor came to survey his site. They ordered him to clean a place in his yard where the house could be built.

"I cut off all the maize plants in my yard to make room for the sand and bricks, but later they told me that they were no longer going to build a house because I´m a naughty man. We argued, after which they disappeared without offering a solution. Now I need a house where I can stay with my kids," said the depressed Mu-laudzi.

The father and three children were shocked and surprised after hearing that their RDP house was given to another man at the same village. The children then had to find accommodation with relatives.

A ward councillor, Khamusi Mauba, said that some of the needy people have not yet received low-cost houses because of a lack of knowledge of how the system works. “That´s why the civic structure has given advice to families who need the accommoda-tion,” he said.

"According to the information I received, Mr Mulaudzi had refused the RDP house after people told him there was a payment to be made after the building was completed. We had three men from the same village who qualified to get a house, and we added them to our beneficiary priority list. As we are working for the people, we are trying to make sure everybody gets a better house. That´s why we have completed unfinished houses and we are busy building houses all over," said Mauba.