A DREAM COME TRUE: Soweto pensioner (97) finally gets RDP home after Daily Maverick report

Emily Mohapi’s story is one of endurance and exclusion. The 97-year-old had lived in the Protea South informal settlement in Soweto, Johannesburg, since before 1996, when she applied for a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) house.

Yet, when the programme took off in the area around 2012, she was left out. While others moved into formal homes, she remained behind, still waiting, still surviving in harsh conditions.

Years of broken promises left Mohapi stripped of her dignity, her housing requests constantly ignored. But momentum shifted when DA PR Councillor Maureen Mnisi championed her case and Daily Maverick exposed her struggle. Prompted by the report, provincial housing officials stepped in to fix the systemic failure – and on 19 August, 15 months after her story came to light, Mohapi finally unlocked the door to her new home in Lufhereng, a mega housing project in the west of Soweto.

Before that, Mohapi lived alone in a dilapidated two‑room shack, with relatives and community members taking turns to look after her. She had previously been notified that she would move into an RDP home, No 1482, but this never materialised. 

She still tends her garden, attributing her inner strength to the gruelling physical labour she endured during her many years as a domestic worker under apartheid.

New keys

Daily Maverick arrived at Mohapi’s shack last Wednesday morning, soon before she left for her new home. She was still bathing and getting ready to say goodbye to Protea South, which has been home for many years.

“It has been a journey and a blessing, my children, to get to where I am,” she said. “I am 106 years old now. God is on my side.”

According to her official documents, Mohapi is 106 years old, but she says she was born in 1929 and mistakes were probably made when recording her age.

“I don’t know what to say to [finally] have to leave this tin which I have been staying in when people stay in houses,” said Mohapi.

“But it’s been a long way coming. I started working as a domestic worker in 1957. But now my body does not allow me to do much.”

Housing crisis

Many residents in Protea South and other areas across Joburg are forced to live in shacks, often with very limited resources.

Johannesburg has a housing backlog of about 500,000 units. Pensioners routinely report checking on their status only to learn that the homes intended for them were allocated to someone else.

In October 2024, Gauteng’s Human Settlements MEC, Tasneem Motara, said 516,316 people were still waiting for houses in Johannesburg, and 1.3 million across Gauteng. The province’s target for 2024/25 was 5,923 houses, but it’s not clear if even that was achieved. 

“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,” Jos Venter, from Webber Wentzel, who is representing some Protea South residents in their litigation against the City of Johannesburg, told Daily Maverick in March last year.

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