Pretoria - For the first time in her 109 years, North West great grandmother Mmami Motlhokwa is the proud owner of her own home.
After sharing a two-bedroom house with her children and great grandchildren for years, Motlhokwa was handed her new house in Coligny by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale on Tuesday.
Motlhokwa's house was one of 54 constructed as part of the National Women's Build Programme, a programme that seeks to honour the 1956 march by women to Union Buildings in protest against the pass laws. In total 1956 houses will be built across the North West province.
Accompanied by North West Premier Maureen Modiselle and North West Human Settlements MEC Desbo Mohono, Sexwale appealed to those who had received new homes not to build shacks next to them.
"We would like to turn this small area into a proper human settlement where people will live, learn, leisure and pray," he told the new homeowners.
The minister also sounded a warning to building contractors who constructed shoddy houses and were involved in corrupt activities. "We will chase you. We will find you. We will arrest you and lock you up. You will pay back the money that belongs to our people," he said.
An audit is currently underway to determine the number of houses that have been poorly constructed and need to be rectified in the North West.
Sexwale said countrywide around 2 000 dodgy contractors had been arrested and their bank accounts frozen in order for government to recover its money.
