The government says she got a house. But Emily Lepota still lives in a shack

Emily Lepota in front of her incomplete RDP house. Photo: Steve Kretzmann

Emily Lepota, 62, has lived in a two-roomed shack for 16 years, despite being granted an RDP house.

The Housing Subsidy System shows that Lepota’s house is complete and was handed over to her. But when GroundUp visited Lepota, in Morolong, east of Bloemfontein, we found the house half-built, without windows or a roof.

In 2009, Lepota’s original house was destroyed when a mini tornado tore through the area. The Free State Department of Human Settlements launched a housing project to replace the damaged houses, including Lepota’s.

Lepota says construction started in 2011, but was never finished. “The house has been standing like this since 2012. The contractor, who I only knew as Mr Tshabalala, did not complete the house. He told me there is no money anymore to continue,” Lepota said.

This housing project was launched at the height of corruption in the provincial housing department. Officials were later found to have paid millions to suppliers before any building had started. The Zondo Commission found that this scheme was unlawful and called the R1-billion housing drive a “dismal failure”. The department’s head at the time was later convicted of corruption.

The corruption and mismanagement left at least 20,000 houses unfinished. Many more houses might be unfinished but are marked as complete on the system, like Lepota’s.

Lepota shares her shack with seven people. “Life in this shack is hard. During rain, water comes through the roof and we cannot sleep,” she said.

No-one in the household is formally employed. Her daughter does odd jobs. The household’s main income is social grants: her old age grant, her grandchild’s child support grant, and her son’s Social Relief of Distress grant.

The family shares a communal standpipe in the yard and uses a pit toilet.

“The system says the house was completed on the 04 Dec 2009,” said department spokesperson Zimasa Mbewu. She said the house is not on the list of incomplete houses.

Mbewu said that about 450 incomplete houses were completed in the 2025/26 financial year, and 532 are set to be completed this year. In a follow-up conversation with GroundUp, Mbewu said officials had visited Lepota’s house and promised that she would not be left out.

“I just want a proper house for my children and grandchildren before I die,” said Lepota.

© 2026 GroundUp. This article is published under the GroundUp Republication Licence Version 1.0. Email [email protected] to request permission to republish.

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