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.
At the time, some Nyallokong residents told Health-e News that they suffer from chronic asthma and are in and out of hospital.
In the Sanco-Ville informal settlement, RDP homes and shacks have been without electricity, tap water and flush toilets since 2014.
Residents make use of communal taps and mobile toilets or pit toilets.
The couple shares a pit toilet with several other families.
“It’s disgusting,” Phumza says. “I feel like I’m living in a slime pit.”
“I feel like I’m not even human.”
“The smell is unbearable, and it’s always dirty. I worry about diseases, and it’s embarrassing to have to use it with so many people.
Living with asthma while relying on paraffin and outdoor fires to cook
Manana says doctors advised her to stop using paraffin stoves because of her asthma. Now she cooks outside over a wood fire instead. She says the asthma attacks are now less frequent, but cooking on fire takes longer and is more labour-intensive.
“I am still fortunate that I haven’t had the asthma attack without Mhlangabezi here,” she says.
“But I do get worried sometimes that if it does happen, I won’t be able to make my neighbours aware in time.”
”Pregnancy and raising a child without water or toilets
For Mahlomola Malako and his partner, Ntsiki Dlomo, little has changed since they moved to Sanco-Ville in 2014.
The couple says they settled in the informal settlement hoping they would eventually receive formal housing and basic services.
Dlomo fell pregnant in 2019. While heavily pregnant, she says she had to fetch water from a communal tap down the road because there was no running water at home.
“Mahlomola was out searching for jobs or doing his casual work, leaving me to manage on my own,” she tells Health-e News.
“It was hard, but I had no choice. I had to do it for my unborn child.”
She says she feels humiliated asking neighbours if she could use their toilet.
“It was embarrassing and still is,” she says. “I would rather have a toilet in my own yard, so I don’t have to go through this again.”
Today, her daughter is in Grade 1. The family still has no tap water, flush toilet or electricity at home. The couple worry about raising their daughter in Sanco-Ville.
“It’s painful knowing my daughter bathes in cold water in winter to get ready for school.”
“We don’t have a paraffin heater. We use a gas stove and we cannot afford both paraffin and gas at the same time. With high fuel prices it’s hard,” Malako says.
Relocation concerns
Some Sanco-ville residents told Health-e News that they’ve been offered the chance to relocate to a new informal settlement at Kalusha Village and Allanridge Extension 2.
According to Ward 19 councillor Paseka Ramatisa, 188 households remain in Sanco-ville. But not everyone is convinced the move will improve their lives.
Resident Bongani Fhliza says he fears they will be moving from one settlement without services to another.
“Already where they are taking us in Kalusha Village and Extension 2 there are no services,” he says.
Local government response
In July 2025, the Free State government announced a R14-million emergency housing intervention to relocate families living in hazardous conditions near Voëlpan Dam.
At the time, Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae said at least 77 families from informal settlements around Allenridge would be moved to “more habitable and health-friendly” sites in the initial phase. The project was initially expected to be completed by March 2026.
According to reports from opposition parties in March, the relocation of some of the affected families in the area has been delayed.
Councillor Ramatisa confirmed that the Matjhabeng Municipality and the Department of Human Settlements have identified two new sites where some Sanco-Ville residents are already relocating.
Ramatisa told Health-e News that electricity installation has started in Kalusha and that land has also been identified in Allanridge Extension 2 to accommodate more households.
He says the municipality is in the process of acquiring additional land for future housing developments. Ramatisa adds that more details on the relocation process will become clear over time.
But for many residents, like Bongani Fhliza, the relocation plans hold nothing but empty promises.
“We get nothing here, and now they’re moving us somewhere else where we are going to wait for the basic services too. What’s the point?” he asks.
“If only they were taking us to a place where water, electricity and toilets are.”
