Moyahabo Mabeba

Moyahabo Mabeba

A life without a home endured by two Limpopo orphans turned to joy when the provincial department of local government and housing presented them with an RDP house near Mokopane.

The handover of the house in Extension 20 to the Tselane sisters Letta, 23, and Salminah, 27, on Friday was a sigh of relief for them, bringing to an end years of misery.

The two young women's misery began in 1988 with the death of their mother and worsened with their father's death in 2000.

Since then they have been treated as the poor cousins of their immediate family. They were kicked out of their uncle's house by his wife and had to stay with their elderly grandmother.

Life was not easy, having to survive on her pension grant.

Letta had to drop out of Matopa High School in Leyden village in Grade 11. Her elder sister, Salminah, is deaf, leaving her with a slim chance of going to school.

After many years of unhappiness, last Friday turned out to be a day to cherish forever.

MEC Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Mogalakwena municipal mayor Bob Mmola handed over the four-roomed house.

Letta said: "It's like I'm dreaming. We have been a burden in other people's homes for so long.

"Today we can live in our own house in peace. We appreciate the good work done by Madam Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and her department."

The MEC pledged to work with the departments of education and social development to ensure that Letta returned to school and Salminah received a dependency grant because of her hearing difficulty.

As she gave the keys to the young women, Nkoana-Mashabane warned them not to use the house as a love nest.

"We are giving you this house as a shelter," she said.