A local “wheelchair bound” beggar who frequents the Musgrave and Overport intersections had his luck run out this week when a Glenwood resident spotted him pushing his wheelchair across Ridge Road after a long day of begging.
Lee-ann Bird, a dental rep who frequently travels between the busy suburbs in Durban said she initially noticed the man begging at the 45th Cutting intersection. A while later, she spotted him around the Essenwood Road, Berea Park and Ridge Road intersection. “He once came close to my car and I suspected he was pretending to be disabled. Then yesterday, I was leaving Parklands Hospital, I finally caught him in the act walking across Ridge Road while pushing his wheelchair. I had to get a picture and catch him on camera,” she said.
Bird said she sees so many homeless people and children begging at Durban’s various intersections. “I wanted to alert people to this scam artist because they prey on people’s conscience but are actually risking their own as well as motorists lives by standing or wheeling themselves in the middle of intersections,” she said.
Des Moodley, community crime activist and Berea Sector One chairman said he had alerted authorities to the man’s scam. “I have arranged for him to be arrested under the new by-law,” he said, adding that Metro Police had started a vagrant cleanup in the area on Monday and commended Superintendent Maharaj, and his dedicated team on the work they were doing.
