FCC, Didimalang saga continues

Patricia Edwin | Friday April 4, 2014 14:47

Now, FCC has disclosed that it is busy looking for a plot for the 45 year-old woman Mosadisadi Didimalang in Chadibe so that it can build her a home using its own funds.

City mayor James Kgalajwe confirmed that FCC would relocate Didimalang to Chadibe, reiterating that they will not give her the plot that she is currently occupying because it now belongs to the council.

“We have agreed not to give her that plot, but rather find her another one in Chadibe village, which we will develop for her,” he said.

Kgalajwe said that because Chadibe is a non-planning area, they would be able to engage the village authorities and landboard to get a go-ahead for construction to begin.

He said that there is also another Monarch resident who has to be relocated.  The man spent his compensation money without moving to a plot he was allocated to and now he has been rendered destitute.

“We will build for them small cottages called one-and-a-half,” he said.

He said that the city council has funds that are meant to house the needy and that they would also approach businesses that are willing to partner and build them houses.

Kgalajwe said that they are treating the issue as urgent and they want to relocate Didimalang and her child as soon as possible.

“The committees were still discussing the issue and they have finalised that they have to build for her, but in the meantime we have resolved that she can stay put on the plot that she is currently on,” he said.

City Clerk Leboile Israel confirmed that they are working on relocating Didimalang to Chadibe and that building for her will not be a problem.

On the other hand, Didimalang said she hopes the council will not treat her as they did in the past where they told her to stay on the plot while they find a solution, only to come later with threats of eviction.

She said that she could sleep in peace if the council does not demolish her home.

“I have no problem with them relocating me to Chadibe Village as long as my daughter and I have a place to stay,” she said.

She said that she has been told to go to Chadibe and check for available plots and fill out the forms and notify the social workers who will then take it from there.

Last week she vowed that if the council wanted to forcefully evict her they would have to squash her, her daughter and their property while inside the house because she was not going to move an inch.

If the council does move Didimalang to Chadibe and build her a house it will be the end of a long struggle between herself and the council.

The saga between the city council and Didimalang is that she is staying illegally at Plot 3690 in Monarch Location after the father of her child relocated to Block 9 at the time of Monarch infrastructure.

The council had paid compensation to the live-in-lover, Patrick Chaenda and also issued him with a new plot because he was the rightful owner of the plot Didimalang currently occupies.

At the time of the compensation and the relocation, Chaenda and Didimalang were having relationship problems.  He moved out leaving her in the house with her child.

Having nowhere to go she stayed on the same plot that the council repossessed.

Didimalang said that when she consulted the council they told her that she could stay on the plot as they sought a solution.  However, she recently received a notice of eviction further threatening to forcefully remove her and her daughter. The council has since denied those allegations.