‘Sometimes I cry’ — after applying in 1996, Soweto pensioner Emily Mohape still dreams of an RDP home

While still able to tend to her garden, pensioner Emily Mohapi (84) from Protea South wants to die in a proper house, not a shack. (Photo: Bheki Simelane)

By Bheki C. Simelane

31 Mar 2025

Emily Mohapi, 86, who still lives in a shack after she applied for an RDP house almost 30 years ago, says, ‘I want to die in a house, not in this makeshift.’

At 86 years old, Emily Mohapi is one of many who feel they’ve been forgotten by the government’s housing allocation process. Mohapi, originally from Orlando East, arrived in Protea South, Soweto, in January 1994.

“All my neighbours got their houses where they now live,” Mohapi said.

She first applied for an RDP home in 1996. While she cannot recall the date, Mohapi said people arrived at her home and told her that she would receive an RDP house — with the number 1482.

“While I was still speaking to these people, others came and said I cannot get the house because my number 1482 indicated on the register that I am a man,” Mohapi said.

“It’s very painful. Sometimes I cry, but then I give everything to God,” she said.

Mohapi lives in a dilapidated two-room shack in Protea South. Despite her age, she is still active and does her own gardening. She attributes her strength and resilience to the hardship she endured working in the apartheid era.

emily mohape While still able to tend to her garden, pensioner Emily Mohapi (84) from Protea South wants to die in a proper house, not a shack. (Photo: Bheki Simelane)

“I got my strength from work. I grew up under the boers. I worked for the boers as a domestic worker almost all my life,” she said.

Relocation

Last week, Mohapi listened attentively to Webber Wentzel lawyer Jos Venter, who represents some Protea South residents in their litigation against the City of Johannesburg.

Venter was updating the community about a relocation plan that the city intended to present for public participation.

The plan is required in terms of a court order granted by the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg in December 2023, to secure the upgrading of the Protea South Informal Settlement. The court forced the city to provide essential services such as water and sanitation. The city is now in the process of relocating some residents.

After the conclusion of the Protea South informal settlement community audit and verification, the court ordered the city to develop a comprehensive and detailed plan to relocate residents. The plan outlines how the required relocation will be managed and the process that will be followed in its planning and execution.

“In general, the awarding of RDP houses across the country has been too slow. The same problem affects the residents of Protea South who have applied to benefit from state housing,” Venter told Daily Maverick.

“The city’s failure to deal adequately with the state housing applications is a contributing factor to the housing crisis in Protea South.”

Read more: Protea South — a troubled township on the edge, trusting neither police nor politicians

Venter told the community that they were within their rights to choose whether they wanted to be relocated.

“The city cannot force you,” he said at the meeting on Wednesday, 26 March 2025.

Mohapi said, “I am not even considering relocating. I need a house. Relocation will mean that I exit a shack and go and live in another shack. What is the difference? I want to exit the shack and move to a house. All people want that.”

“For me, I’d love nothing more than a house,’’ Mohapi said. “You see, if they can give me a house, I’d be grateful for the remainder of my life.”

Housing backlog

Mohapi spoke amid growing demand for houses in Johannesburg and, by extension, Gauteng.

In an October 2024 response to a question, Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Tasneem Motara said 516,316 people were on the housing waiting list in Johannesburg and a total of 1.3 million people were on the Gauteng list.

Motara said the target was to build 5,923 houses in Gauteng in 2024/25. She said people who applied from 1996 to 1999 were being prioritised.

At the time, the DA’s Gauteng human settlements spokesperson Evert du Plessis said that “residents may have to wait another 158 years to receive a house, given the current rate of just over 9,000 houses built annually”, based on data from the previous five years.

Read more: Johannesburg Social Housing Company battles to reduce staggering waiting list

Protea South’s Mohapi said she was not holding her breath after a recent visit to the human settlements department. She said she was told that she would receive her house by June 2025, although details are unclear.

The City of Johannesburg and Gauteng Department of Human Settlements did not respond to Daily Maverick’s questions on Mohapi’s plight and the housing backlog in the city and province.

“I want to die in a house, not in this makeshift. I worked very hard as a domestic worker,” said Mohapi.

“When my bosses paid me, they would include an amount with which they said I must pay the municipality,” Mohapi said, saying she always paid for her rates and services.

“What municipality?” she asked. “I was a huge financial contributor to the municipality. But the municipality has taken me for a ride.”

Rights violation

DA PR councillor and Protea South Community leader Maureen Mnisi blamed the failures on the government.

“The current administration’s failure to provide essential services highlights a lack of accountability and political will,” she said.

Mnisi said there were no solutions other than to demand promised services from the government.

She said the Protea South and other informal settlements faced serious service delivery issues, such as a lack of housing, sanitation, clean water and electricity.

Mnisi said the state of service delivery in Johannesburg, particularly in informal settlements, was a violation of residents’ rights to health and dignity.

“We have a sanitation crisis where one toilet is shared by seven families, and that is not acceptable. The unavailability of wheelchair-accessible toilets further marginalises people with disabilities,” Mnisi said.

Venter said, “The city has failed dismally to realise the right of access to adequate housing of the residents of Protea South informal settlement. The extent of the city’s failure is set out in Maureen Mnisi’s affidavit that was filed in the litigation in November 2023.”

“The manner in which the city, including staff members, the MMC, the ward councillor and other representatives, have dealt with the upgrading of Protea South informal settlement has shown a blatant disregard for the rights of the residents.” DM

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