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RESCUED: Maria Maphanga lived in a toilet for years. Photo: Sibongile Mashaba

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• Destitute woman sleeps in a toilet... and sometimes under a tree

The 76-year-old woman from Kgautswane in Limpopo had been forced to sleep in a toilet and sometimes under a tree in Nyongane Trust near Hazyview, Mpumalanga, after her shack had collapsed.

"I am happy to be home. They fetched me from Egypt. I ate delicious food when I arrived home (at her elder sister Magdalene Maphanga's house in Rietfontein, Kgautswane)," Maphanga said.

She said she was glad her life would change for the better. "I still want a house of my own," she said. Maphanga, who last saw her family about 40 years ago, saw them again for the first time on Friday.

Maphanga's nephew Shadrack Kumako said that they were also happy to have found her. "We have been looking for her. We were saddened when we found out she had been sleeping in a toilet. That is not how a human being should live. We are also saddened by the fact that the leaders in that area did nothing to help her," Kumako said.

Maphanga will stay with Kumako in Burgersfort in Limpopo.

A drama unfolded in the village on Friday when the family arrived to fetch Maphanga.

Ward committee member Lesley Nxumalo refused to let the family take her home. He told the family that Maphanga would get a house. But her family would not budge. "We are not going to leave her here," Kumako said. Nxumalo later said: "We have failed our gogo." After her story was published officials arrived to see Maphanga, who had been moved to a house in the area.

The room was being painted when the Sowetan team arrived. The officials brought her bed, blankets, a comforter and cutlery. Maphanga and her neighbour told Sowetan that local councillors had done nothing to help her.

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Mon May 20 15:26:49 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 2, 2012

MommaC

40 years?
And I thought my family was bad at keeping in touch.
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Jul 2, 2012

Papage

Bomme le Bontate, stop leaving your life large at tender age, remeber home and family members. Dont put your family members under pressure to look after you at old age yet while young you never cared about them. Know that one day you will grow old and need them, some run away young and never look back until sowetan find them. Stop it
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Jul 2, 2012

2nevvy4u

now this is a permanent solution to your problems gogo,halala!!!
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Jul 2, 2012

MISSTY!!!

@Papage
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i always read ur comments and i must say,u make sense all the time...
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Jul 2, 2012

Mmarena

She said she was glad her life would change for the better. "I still want a house of my own," she said. Maphanga, who last saw her family about 40 years ago, saw them again for the first time on Friday
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Am sori but i have a problem, People leave their families to enjoy life and when things turns sour the same abonded families carries the burden. just check those years 40 years!!!!!!!!
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Jul 2, 2012

somaartakeit

"Ward committee member Lesley Nxumalo refused to let the family take her home" LOVL the ward committee member prolly wanted to parade her as a trophy to advance his/her political position, why didn't they do anything for her in the last 4yrs she lived as a tramp?

PS: SA vote for Sowetan for service delivery only they manage to get things started whilst our leaders are trotting the globe at half a billion for tax payers account, doing absolute jerk cause there is no measurable benefits to justify such travel costs to foreign countries, instead we spend more and get less.

we have fools for leaders.
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Jul 2, 2012

Papage

Thanx MISSTY!!!, this block helps us to help one another, hope we can learn a tin ot 2

Danki
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Jul 2, 2012

BaleliM

That is too long a time for a family not knowing your whereabouts. Glad she is with the loved ones though.
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Jul 2, 2012

Limpopoist

Thanks to SABC touching live to report these story FIRST,
Sowetan ,dankie san for follow up
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Jul 2, 2012

Maratachelete

This story makes me feel proud to be a journo.It proves to me that good can actually come out from the media.
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