No help for the homeless yet

Throughout the pandemic, the number of individuals in Ekurhuleni standing at the corners of intersections, asking for handouts, seems to have increased.

From experience working in the community, there are often too many variables to judge why they are on the streets.

Heather Hart, shadow MMC for town planning for the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) spoke to the NEWS on the matter of homelessness in Edenvale and the greater Ekurhuleni region.

In recent years the NEWS has published multiple articles about residents’ and ward councillors’ concerns regarding vagrants in areas such as Bill Stuart Nature Reserve, Kloof Road, Sebenza, Eastleigh, Edenvale Skate Park and Horwood’s Farm.

Hart said ultimately the municipality is left to deal with a task that is the responsibility of the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD).

“The city’s EMPD used to work with the DSD to find shelters, homes or places of safety [for individuals],” said Hart. “Although the EMPD tends to by-law infringements such as squatting, ultimately it is local government incompetency which has led to the worsening problem of vagrants.”

Hart said NGOs, soup kitchens, shelters and other feeding programmes have helped those in need. The 2020 mid-year population estimates, published by the Department of Statistics, puts SA’s population at 59.62 million. Of that, approximately four million people live in CoE.

In a report released by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, it read “the unemployment rate in Ekurhuleni is 31.8 per cent”. According to these statistics, provided by the government, 1 238 292 working-age community members are thus without jobs.

To put this into perspective, such an estimated number of unemployed individuals could create:

• 12 382 92 modern full-scale symphonic orchestras (100 members each).
• 34 397 chamber choirs (36 members each).
• 82 552 rugby teams (15 members each).

“The unemployment rate in the city has always been far above the Gauteng and country average,” stated the report. Hart said: “From a low of 26.6 per cent in 2006, unemployment rose to 29.7 per cent in 2015 [for CoE]. The number of people employed in CoE declined from 1 190 000 in the second quarter of 2015 to 1 161 000 in the second quarter of 2016.

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“During the hard lockdown, we saw how the community, stakeholders and organisations can address the issue of helping those living on the streets.
“It can be done if the necessary resources are in place. It should be noted this is a provincial DSD mandate to tend to the matter and help these people.”
Hart’s sentiments were echoed by CoE when the metro spokesperson, Nhlanhla Cebekhulu, provided comment to the NEWS’ questions last year regarding vagrants living near a Sebenza wetland.

Cebekhulu said: “The city is working in partnership with the Gauteng DSD, which is the lead department in dealing with homelessness in the province to craft a policy that will be adopted by all municipalities.

“The city has not finalised its vagrant policy, and we are still working with DSD to finalise the guideline.” Hart said although the framework for a policy is in place, the city does not want to finalise it because of the responsibility associated with it.

Residents can only report concerns regarding vagrants to the nearest customer care centre for by-law enforcement and integrated response by the EMPD and all the affected departments.

However, from the NEWS’ and its sister publication CITY NEWS’ own experience, it can be a timely ordeal. After reporting homeless individuals camped outside our offices to the relevant authorities, the matter persists.

Law enforcement officers suggested installing water sprinklers and turning them on every few hours to keep the vagrants away. A request for comment was sent to CoE on March 16, requesting comment by March 18 at noon.

This is a developing story and comment will be added from the City of Ekurhuleni as soon as received.

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