Rich harvest for missing middle

Maditaba Sophia Mokhuoa is the first to tell you how lucky she is. The mother of three girls knows the pain of being denied a home because you are considered too rich for an RDP house or too poor for a bank loan to buy your own house.

When her husband was still alive, the couple spent the first years of their marriage apart. Mokhuoa lived in Thabong, a township outside the gold mining town of Welkom in the Free State, with their children, while her husband lived elsewhere. Because he was the only one employed, each time they applied for a house, they were given the same response.

“We were told that we did not qualify. We did not qualify for an RDP house; we did not qualify for a bank loan to buy our own home,” she says.

Government had already identified the problem of the missing middle and was looking for innovative ways to tackle it. In Welkom, the provincial government and the local municipality joined forces with mining company Harmony Gold to conceptualise a low- to middle-income housing estate that would cater for this segment.

It resulted in Masimong 4 Estate, a joint venture between the Free State department of cooperative governance, traditional affairs and human settlements; the Matjhabeng local municipality; and Harmony Gold. The three partners transformed old mine hostels into affordable and comfortable housing units.

There are 461 units at Masimong 4. Security is tight and residents use a biometric fingerprint system to access the complex and sign in their visitors.

Mokhuoa and her family were among the first to occupy the residential complex. They live in a three-bedroom flat on the second floor and pay R750 a month in rent. Their electricity is capped at R250 a month and they use a water-metering system at a cost of R10.25 per kilolitre. They use three kilolitres of hot and cold water a month, so they pay R30.75 in total.

“I am a very happy tenant,” Mokhuoa says. “I have my own main bedroom, my older daughter has her own bedroom and the two younger girls share a bedroom. This is a very secure complex; my kids can play safely on the grounds without my having to worry about them.”

Rent is structured on a sliding scale. Families with a combined monthly income of between R3 500 and R7 000 pay R350 per month for a bachelor flat, R500 for a one-bedroom unit and R700 for two- and three-bedroom units. Families with a combined monthly income of more than R7 500 fork out R750 for a bachelor flat, R1 000 for a one-bedroom unit and R1 850 for two- or three-bedroom units.

Mokhuoa found work with the company appointed by the Matjhabeng Local Municipality to manage Masimong 4, but that came to an end recently when the municipality ended the contract. A new administrator is still to be appointed. In the interim, there has been a maintenance backlog at the housing complex.

Mokhuoa boasts that she has not missed a single rental payment, even after losing her job. She lives off a combination of social grants, savings, family benevolence and piece jobs, which ensure she can keep up with the rent and pay for services.

“I thank God for this. I thank the government for having built this place, otherwise I would still be living at home.”

Lucia Ntjana arrived at Masimong 4 in 2013, but she took a different route to get here. She was living in Odendaalsrus, but accommodation issues forced her to move to one of the hostels in Thabong. While living there, she heard about a tenant at Masimong who wanted to swap her housing unit for a smaller place, preferably one in Thabong.

At the time a junior paramedic, Ntjana did not qualify for an RDP house or a 20-year bond from the bank. She applied for that unit and was approved on the spot. Her good fortune and financial status secured Ntjana what she could call her first real home.

“The person said they wanted to stay in Thabong and I said I would move here. That is how I found this place,” she says.

The mother of three – a girl and two boys – and grandmother of one, works as a paramedic for Buthelezi Ambulance Services, the company contracted by the municipality to run its emergency management services. She loves living in Masimong.

“I love this place. It’s not anywhere near traffic. It is in a very safe location and is extremely secure. Even when I am working at night, I know that no one can break into my unit while my kids are sleeping,” says Ntjana.

She doesn’t mind that she must travel 10km to her job in Welkom. For her, the comfort and safety of Masimong justifies the commute to town. Before moving to Masimong, Ntjana – whose husband died in 2007 – had been frustrated in her search for a place for her family to live.

“You go to the bank, they say you don’t qualify; you want an RDP home, you get the same answer. We didn’t know who to turn to,” she says.

Simon Moletsane was the manager of the housing unit under the previous administrator. He has lived here since 2013 and knows everyone and everything at Masimong 4.

Before that, he had lived in Bedelia, close to Welkom. He heard that as someone earning between R3 500 and R7 000 at the time, he would be eligible for a residential unit at the complex. His application was approved and the young family of four promptly moved into a three-bedroom, ground-floor unit with a lounge, a kitchen and a bathroom – enough space for them.

He pays about R1 200 a month in rent.

Although he is grateful to have found this place for his family, Moletsane is unsure about what will happen to Masimong now that it no longer has a management company running it. Sitting on a two-seater couch in his neatly decorated lounge, while his wife, Modiehi, bustles about in the kitchen, Moletsane pauses when asked what life is like at Masimong.

“I am conflicted in this regard. It was nice at first when we arrived, moving into these brand-new housing units. But I won’t lie; I have been affected by the decision to change the management company of this complex and I do not know what will happen next,” he says.

Since losing his job, Moletsane has kept himself busy in other ways. He has formed a company that has been contracted to do a “certain project” for the municipality, although he does not want to reveal much about it.

He is also helping to start an operation to register as a supplier to the mine next door.