Gaddafi's house falling apart

LAVUMISA – The house which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi built for a poverty-stricken family is literally falling apart.

The three-bedroom house was built in 2003 shortly after Gaddafi’s trip to Swaziland.

He had come into the country for a visit through Lavumisa border post on a long motorcade.

The eccentric leader’s heart was so touched when he saw one of the shabby stick and mud houses shortly after entering the country that he randomly made a stopover at the Gina homestead.

Aside from giving the family some money and gifts like t-shirts, he promised he would ensure they are built a modern house.

Sure enough, that house was eventually built by members of the Muslim community in the kingdom from start to finish.

They also built a pit latrine next to the house, which itself is falling apart from the cracks.

However, seven years later, the house has developed some serious cracks both inside and out such that the family is now living in fear that one day its walls will crumble while they are inside.

"It hasn’t even been a decade and yet the house is cracking up. The floor has also developed a few cracks, I just don’t understand what went wrong with this house," said Thoko Gina, head of the family.

She said she was still grateful to Gaddafi for the house but felt the Libyan leader had something better in mind when he promised them at the beginning.

Gina said she had been seeing the cracks develop on the walls of her house for the past few years but has never taken resolute action to curb them.

However, when this newspaper made a surprise visit to Gina, she seemed more alarmed about the cracks after a short tour of the house.

The fear that the house could possibly fall upon her children was more real to her.

It was evident that almost every room has a crack of its own and if left any longer could see wall sections fall off.

"Now that I have really understood the severity of the cracks, I’m anxious to meet the people who built the house again," she said.

She said she was even promised a water reservoir to collect water from rainfall but it never came.

The absence of a reservoir seems to be contributing to the slow disintegration of the house because during storms, water runs freely around the edges.

One of the spokespersons of the Muslim community who declined to be identified said the Gina family needed to approach them so that a plan could be made.

"We are family with the Gina’s and shall help them where we can," said the Imam.

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