Ten Distitutes Families To Receive New Houses

Life and general living conditions for ten destitute families from various parts of Mpumalanga will be drastically improved. This as the Collen Mashawana Foundation (CMF) pledged to build 10 houses to very needy households in the province during the current financial year.

The Foundation partnered with the Provincial Human Settlements Department to commemorate the Nelson Mandela Month Programme at the Dr JS Moroka Municipality yesterday, 20th July 2021. The two institutions and other stakeholders criss-crossed the municipality distributing food parcels to 50 deserving households in the municipality as part of commemorating Madiba’s humanitarian legacy.

Foundation Founder, Mr Collen Mashawana thanked the MEC for the invite to the province and indicated that as an organisation they have helped many families in partnering with government. “Over the last two years, we have built 200 houses in the country for free and handed them over to needy families in the spirit of Ubuntu. We also prioritize child headed families, elderly persons and people with disabilities” said Mashawana, whilst handing over food parcels to 63-year old, Gogo Mary Madisha one of the beneficiary who amongst the ten to be built a new house.

“This project is going to create more job opportunities for the locals as we are going to hire them in building these houses. We are not building you these houses so you can rent them out, but stay in a safe and dignified house. I also plea with the community not to interrupt the project by protesting and use it to blame government, this is the foundation’s project”, pleaded Mashawana. As a token ‘repaying’, he implored people to pray for the growth of their organisation – much to the benefit and improvement of other communities.

Gogo Madisha was extremely excited to receive the good news that she will finally have her own house. “As you can see I have been staying in this shack with my four children and five grandchildren for many years and I tried to apply for an RDP house but couldn’t succeed. I cannot wait for my new house to be build and sleep inside it”, exclaimed Madisha. Sharing the same sentiments was Mr Peace Magaleng (51), who is unemployed and staying with his wife and four children in a two room shack, “I am grateful that the foundation has committed to build my family a new house. It’s a dream come true since I am unemployed”

Buoyant Mashilo embraced the donations and commitments by the foundation to assist government in collective service delivery. “This shows that as government and private sector we need to work close with each other to restore dignity of our people. We will ensure that when a project starts, we are going to monitor it and ensure that it is not interrupted”, assured Mashilo. The CMF was established in 2012 will be building 100 houses of which the 10 are part for several neglected families throughout the country.