By Chris Gilili on GroundUp
With South Africa’s economic system staggering, and two in each 5 adults unemployed, “villages” of homeless persons are bobbing up in South Africa’s cities as growing numbers of individuals discover themselves on the road. In our collection on homelessness, GroundUp seems at how they’re managing to get by.
Zamokuhle Sangweni, 31, from KwaZulu-Natal, is a part of a group of people that have constructed shelters in opposition to the wall of the Methodist Church constructing on Rissik Street in Johannesburg metropolis centre. She survives on handouts of meals from strangers and would love to seek out a place in a shelter “so that I can get my life together”.
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But the City of Johannesburg, with a minimum of 15 000 homeless individuals, in line with communications officer Ayanda Radebe, runs solely three shelters. (The City says it’s not potential to scientifically estimate the variety of homeless individuals, so the 15 000 determine is a tough quantity.) The largest are in the town centre, with a mixed capability of 650. There is a fourth shelter funded by the Gauteng authorities. There are additionally different locations for homeless individuals run by church buildings and non-government organisations, however there’s undoubtedly an acute scarcity of shelter beds.
One of the City shelters is in Kotze Street in Hillbrow, very near Constitution Hill. Homeless individuals GroundUp interviewed mentioned the R8 nightly price was laborious to pay.
“I have been on the streets for more than ten years now,” mentioned Sangweni. “I have even developed sicknesses I don’t know about. I have swollen legs and I am taking medication. It is too much, and I don’t know where my next meal will come from.”
She used to lease a place in a shelter in Marshalltown with pals. They used to pay R700 a month. “There were three of us sharing a room. We took odd jobs here and there to pay our way. However life took a turn for the worse, we could not pay anymore, and we got kicked out of the shelter. We ended up sleeping on the streets, ” mentioned Sangweni.
Radebe says in 2011-22 over 11 500 homeless individuals had been reached by the City’s providers.
City of Johannesburg describes a battle that’s occurring in neighbourhoods throughout the nation
In its response to our questions the City of Johannesburg described a battle that’s occurring in cities throughout the nation.
Broadly talking, there are two opposing opinions about homeless folks that housed residents are articulating, “those who are for and those who are against homeless people”, because the City put it:
- “Those who are for are willing to go to court on behalf” of homeless individuals and occupiers “not to be removed from spaces that they have invaded”.
- “Those who are against the presence of homeless people in their communities. They treat homeless people like objects that should disappear overnight from their communities as their presence and their activities are associated with the increase of crime and grime”. They need City by-laws to be enforced.
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Bongani Fatyi, from the Salvation Army church in Braamfontein, which runs a soup kitchen and provides shelter to weak ladies and kids, mentioned the City ought to do rather more to deal with homelessness. He mentioned the pandemic had contributed to the rise of homelessness.
Radebe agreed that the pandemic had elevated the variety of homeless individuals.
Thandiwe Buthelezi, 35, from Soweto, lives in a small park behind the Bree Street taxi rank in the town centre.
“I initially stayed in Rissik Street, but we were chased away from that spot, because they said they were cleaning up the area and we brought filth. I am the last born and the only girl at home and I grew up among five brothers. My mother was not always there because of work, I was not well treated, and I was even raped by someone close to our family,”
says Buthelezi.
She moved to Johannesburg with a good friend in 2013.
“Initially we stayed in a small room in Hillbrow that we shared and rented with two others. But as time went on, things got sour for us. We could not make ends meet and that is how we found ourselves living on the streets. It is survival of the fittest out here, ”
mentioned Buthelezi.
She has made a shelter from rubble, material, plastic and outdated blankets.
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“At least we have not experienced any cold weather recently. In winter, I felt like I would die at any moment. Life is hell here. Last week, a young man died at night, while we watched and could not help him. Even the friend of mine I came with from Soweto passed away in February.”
Buthelezi says she has tried to get into a shelter however can’t afford the price. She has does intercourse work to generate income. “No one trusts us enough to even give us piece jobs.”
More than something she wish to be reunited together with her household, particularly the ten-year-old son she left at dwelling. She weeps when she talks about him. “The fact that I have never been a parent to my son and cannot see him, is eating me away everyday.”
Thabang Moagi, 25, lives on the bridge in Harrison Street, Braamfontein, in a shelter constituted of plastic and outdated sacks which he shares with pals. “I was arrested for a robbery in Pretoria. I spent a year in prison. After prison, I ended up on the streets.”
“We survive by guarding cars at night and also offering to wash people’s cars.”
He desires to return dwelling however says: “I need to change first”. “Drugs are my challenge,” he says.
Moagi spent six months in rehab however when he left, he fell again into drug use, he says.
“There is also a growing need for shelters for families,” mentioned Leona Pienaar, chief govt of faith-based organisation Mould Empower Serve (MES), which works with the City . “We now often get requests from families living in cars who have lost their homes due to unemployment.”
This article was first revealed on GroundUp
