MATSILOJE: For more than four decades Garebihele Pateye and her family led a paupers life without a proper place of abode.All the unemployed mother of 10 had was a rundown makeshift shelter which she shared with her four other children and two grandchildren. This changed on Saturday when mining giant Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) donated a new state-of-the-art three-roomed house to the frail old woman who does not know her age. The house donated to the Pateye family is worth P92,000. TNMC also donated furniture worth P18,000 to the family.
"I am delighted by this donation. I never imagined I would receive assistance of this nature. I believe that this house will change the life of my family. "We have never had a proper place of abode and the shelter I shared with my children exposed us to danger because it was not well built," she told Mmegi in an interview.Three of her children are married while the other three have since passed away. All the four children who stay with Pateye are unemployed and depend on unreliable menial jobs and government monthly food rations given to the old woman."Now that we have a proper house our worry will now only be on securing food instead of having to worry about both (accommodation and food)," she said.
