BY FIONA MOTSA
MBABANE-A community with a heart!
A woman and her daughter will now live in a newly-built house after being ‘homeless’ for years.
This comes after a neighbour reached out to Illa Penboy Foundation for donations for building the house for Slomo Vilakati.
When reached for comment, the neighbour, Zeblon Vilakati, said Vilakati grew up next to his house but she moved out after to live on her own due to family politics. Her living conditions were terrible and she lived in a worn out shack with her daughter around the neighbourhood.
“She was given a piece of land by the Umphakatsi here at Mahlabaneni because the land she had been living on in the shack was not hers. I then reached out to Ndlangamandla through Facebook because I had been following the good things he has been doing for people, to try and assist us with building Vilakati a house,” said Zebulon.
When reached for comment, Sifiso ‘Illa Penboy’ Dlangamandla, the founder of the foundation, said he received a distress call from a neighbour, Zeblon, who expressed great concern about Vilakati and asked to assess the matter at hand.
“Upon assessment we found the situation very dire. Vilakati has episodes and her daughter has a condition and living in such a house was not fit for any human being. It meant danger for the both of them in terms of the structure and also being far from neighbours,” said Ndlangamandla.
Ndlangamandla revealed that initially they wanted to rent Vilakati a house while raising money for building but found Vilakati did not want to be removed from her spot.
“We bought her a tent, food, clothing, blankets so that she had shelter and food while we worked on a plan to raise money for building her the house.
“Her neighbours have been really helpful as they have donated building material like cement, sand and water to help build the foundation and are also helping with building,” said Ndlangamandla. Ndlangamandla further mentioned the building was underway and material for the structure was coming along as they have received cement, windows and roofing from donations.
Pics sourced from Illa Penboy Foundation Facebook page.
