The non-stop crying of hungry babies is something a Molepolole mum has gotten used to for much of the last 24 years.
Although she looks a lot older, aged by sleepless nights, difficult pregnancies and severe stress, Matlhomola Pelo (not her real name) is still only 39.
Amazingly, the unemployed Motiketsane ward native is a mother to 12 children, the oldest being 24 and the youngest a pair of five-month-old twins.
All stay together in the unfurnished ‘two-and-a-half’ house Pelo inherited from her late parents. There is no power, running water or even a fixed standpipe.
The bricks that make up the dwelling’s outer exterior remain unpainted and the windows badly broken.
Fearful for their security, at night, the large family all sleep in the same room, cuddling up together to compensate for the lack of blankets.
“We just sleep together in one room even if it’s small so that in case we get attacked by criminals we can try to shout for help. You see there are no windows, we are not protected, we just live in fear,” she reveals with a tired sigh.
It is a bleak existence, one that came to The Voice’s attention when a concerned citizen, Mmanotwane Chabaesele, tipped off this reporter.
Chabaesele stumbled upon the family’s plight during recent house-to-house political campaigning carried out in the area.
“I was with my party colleagues and it just seemed to be normal to them as they knew the woman. It triggered in my spirit and I felt deep in my heart that something was wrong. When I heard the woman saying she is a mother of 12 with her last-born twins beside her, I started to look around the yard and decided that I should re-visit the woman alone,” explained Chabaesele, adding she returned later and sat down with Pelo to get a brief background of her life.
Her heart was right, the situation was very wrong.
When The Voice went to meet with Pelo to get more details, she agrees to speak to us providing we leave her identity out.
Although she describes her children as blessings, the struggling mother admits she’s embarrassed by her circumstances and doesn’t want her problems to become the source of local gossip.
To add to her difficulties, Pelo’s six-year-old son is severely disabled.
Born with ‘spina bifida’, a defect that affects the spine, the little boy cannot walk or even control his bowels. He has a wheelchair but it doesn’t work; without it, the helpless child is unable to get around.
Last year, while Pule was heavily pregnant with the twins, he was hospitilised and later operated on.
“We are still nursing the operation wound,” she reveals, holding the little lad lovingly in her arms, who smiles shyly.
Due to his condition, Pule gets P1, 200 a month from the Social Welfare office to care for her disabled son. The money is to cover food, pampers and toiletry but it is never enough, especially with other hungry mouths to feed.
“The social worker has told me to look for piece jobs. That one I don’t mind, the problem is my disabled child and the twins. At least if my mother was alive to assist that could be better, now nothing is moving in my life,” she says, too exhausted to even think about crying.
Her mother passed away in 2010, her dad three years later.
They were survived by three children, Pule and her two brothers, aged 45 and 42.
The trio are not on good terms.
While her siblings stay elsewhere, they want Pule and her brood to vacate the yard, which was also left to them.
“Anytime my brothers can chase me away from home, it’s difficult for me to look for temporary jobs. There is no one to remain with the little kids; my disabled child also needs someone to be always around him, his father also died in 2022. The father of the last born twins is hustling to make ends meet but with his business for selling sweets, the profit can’t maintain the whole family,” she continues, becoming increasingly frustrated.
Apart from her second born, a 20-year-old boy who completed Form 3, none of Pule’s offspring work.
“He works temporary jobs while the rest are unemployed. It’s hard for them,” says the mum defensively.
Her eldest also made it to Form 3, while two of her sons, aged 19 and 18, dropped out of school in Standard 7 and Standard 4 respectively.
Currently, only three of her children are getting an education: a 13-year-old and his sister, 10, who are both doing Standard 5, while she has an eight-year-old daughter in Standard 3.
The others, aged: six, five, four and the twins spend the day at home with mum.
“The social workers have long ceased to assist my children with school uniforms. Sometimes we get some clothing donations from their teachers.
“If any of your readers can help, please let them do so. As you can see, we are really struggling. There’s no food, and my children need clothes and toiletry,” pleads Pule, whose dream is to have her own plot, and be assisted with a one-roomed house.
“That will give me peace for the rest of my life!” she says.
Sadly, peace is a comfort Pule has experienced precious little of in her life to date.
