An initiative comprising of firefighters dubbed ‘Brotherhood’ garnered funding and rebuilding assistance from Xtenda Housing Finance and Construction Company to rebuild a tragically burned down house of their late colleague Samuel Mthobo Sambo in Daveyton, Ext 6.The preliminary project preparation took place on August 14, 2020 paving the way for the concrete construction work that will embark on Monday, 17th of August 2020 carried out by Xtenda Housing Finance and Construction Company that constructs home improvements, new houses and extensions of buildings. The house which burned down on December 13, 2019, left their late colleague’s widow(Sylvia Nkabinde) stranded with her young boy and accommodated by relatives, but the Brotherhood movement spearheaded by Jimmy Mandla Nyalungu(City of Ekurhuleni’s EMS regional manager) and funded by Xtenda housing finance seeks to curb the dire situation.
The Chairperson of Brotherhood Jimmy Mandla Nyalungu vividly expressed that, “I came up with the ‘Brotherhood’ concept, after I saw a facebook post that the family was not assisted regarding their house crisis i called my colleagues from all over so that we can come together and start assisting, they responded positively, we then came together, created a facebook page around 10 O’clock at night and in the morning we had about close to hundred people joining us, pledging their contributions, That’s how we started, to be honest , I don’t have words, we were not expecting this, it actually happened so quick and we were not expecting that by December the project would be completed.“ But now we are sitting four months before, everything is up and running, we are very happy with the progress, the construction will start very soon and if everything goes according to plan by the 2nd of October the house will be officially handed over, this is our first project, we want to continue assisting by checking the wellbeing of our retired colleagues, and lending a helping hand if possible and even extending our helping hand to the community at large, especially people in the townships, even where there are no houses we need to come in as Brotherhood and further establish a partnership with Xtenda Housing Finance to assist in various communities by building houses ,” Nyalungu emphasized.
A contractor and director, Raain Leroux, enlightened the Ekurhuleni Newspaper by saying that, “We will start our job on the 17th of August 2020 by removing the rubble in the yard whilst building a toilet outside as it’s one of the necessities in the yard and the actual construction of the house will start on the 19th of August 2020, we wish to complete the house by September 17, 2020, to give the home owners a two weeks time-frame of occupying the house, before the official ceremoniously hand over on 2nd of October 2020, we feel humbled as a company to be part of the project, as it’s women’s month we need to empower Sylvia as a women to get back at her feet by providing her with a decent place to stay,” Leroux concluded.
BY MATAMPANE RAYMOND MOKWENA
