‘When She Can’t Breathe, I Carry Her’ – Living without Basic Services in Sanco-Ville

Health-e News ‘When She Can’t Breathe, I Carry Her’ – Living without Basic Services in Sanco-Ville Free State.

Every time Phumza Manana suffers an asthma attack, her partner, Mhlangabezi Mgibiza has to carry her through the narrow footpaths of Sanco-ville informal settlement to the nearest place an ambulance can reach.

The couple, who have lived in a shack in the settlement since 2020, get by without electricity, running water or a flush toilet.

They say the living conditions in Sanco-Ville in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality put their health at risk.

“I get worried when she is alone in the house because there are only two of us in the house.

What if she gets an asthma attack and there is no one who can take her to the ambulance?” says Mgibiza.

The couple’s shack stands along an inaccessible dirt road where vehicles, including ambulances, can’t reach.

Mgibiza says they pay R150 a month to rent their shack.

They hoped moving to Sanco-Ville would be the start of a better life together.

Instead, they have lived without basic services for years.

No basic services for more than a decade Residents from nearby informal settlements were relocated to Sanco-ville in 2014.

The informal settlement, near the mining town, Allenridge in the Free State, falls within the Matjhabeng Local Municipality.

About 188 families currently live in Sanco-ville.

Health-e News has reported on the hazardous living conditions of other nearby communities living in Nyallokong township close to Voëlpan Dam, contaminated by toxic wastewater from the Harmony Gold Mining Company.