Mum-and-daughter bring goodness to Durban’s homeless

INTRODUCING yourself to people as journalist, you must be prepared to deal with an avalanche of stereotypes that follow this disclosure.

‘Journalists are coffee- and liquor-guzzling, foul-mouthed, jaded, liberal, middle-aged folk with prematurely graying hair who are perpetually broke (well, this is not far from the truth). They only care about their stories not the facts and you cannot trust them because they will twist your words’. So said a homeless woman I met at Silethokuhle, an organisation that works with homeless people in Durban.

“Not all homeless people are addicted to drugs or alcohol and for me to push common stereotypes about any sect of people is unfair,” I retorted, in response to her sentiments.

Ma Octavia Ntshangase, who is the founder of Silethokuhle, agrees. Pointing to the women at the centre, she says: “The women you see here aren’t drug addicts. The public thinks most of the women you see on the streets are there because of drug addiction, but they are there because of a gambling addiction.”

“You see, today it is end of the month, most of them receive social grants. If we were to take a walk around the city you wouldn’t see them on the streets. But if we were to go to the sports betting places and casinos we would find them in their numbers. People gamble with their money thinking they are going to win and once it is finished, they are scared to go home and face reality. They end up wandering the streets of Durban. Ask yourself where are all these old homeless grannies coming from? There are so many of them. We need programmes that educate people about gambling, because people don’t see the dangers of it,” said Ntshangase.

A study released in 2017 revealed that more than 50 per cent of South African women gamble, claiming that the gambling addiction takes a shorter time to set in among women, compared to their male counterparts. Heidi Sinclair, treatment and counselling manager at the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation, said many female gamblers experience anxiety.

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“This is typical of the condition which is most often accompanied by other disorders. But while this may take the form of psychological issues with women, male gamblers usually often present with alcoholism or drug addiction. In contrast women’s gambling frequently centres around activities that require little strategy, like slot machines or Bingo, and it’s these activities that may trap them in a cycle of problem gambling. While gambling negatively affects one’s finances, problem gamblers may present other conditions ranging from tachycardia to angina, cirrhosis and other liver diseases.”

Last year a community in Chatsworth, protested over the opening of a large bingo hall in Chatsworth.

The two-floor bingo and entertainment centre, run by Goldrush Bingo Chatsworth, and located in the same building that had housed the casino more than a decade ago, has residents, councillors and community leaders up in arms, as it is just steps away from an EasyPay office, which distributes South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants and pensions.

From soup kitchen to skills training

THE organisation,  Silethokuhle, was registered in 2013 and started operating in 2014 as soup kitchen for the homeless. Silethokuhle is a Zulu word which means ‘we are bringing goodness’, and was started by Octavia Ntshangase.

“When I first came to Durban in 2011, I was amazed by how many homeless people I came across. They all had different stories on how they ended up living on the street. At first I used to take them in and live with them in my home. However, what influenced me the most was my brother, he was once a homeless person who lived on the street. I remember him saying he called a concrete drainage pipe his home. Because I had a home I didn’t understand how a person could live like that. When I encountered all these homeless people, it brought back all those memories,” she said.

The organisation has grown since those early days when Ntshangase used to prepare meals at home and then go into the CBD and set up under a tree, where she would dish up for the homeless. Today, the organisation has a food gardening project, a soccer team and an arts and craft project with nine participants. It feeds over 150 people every Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. CEO of the organisation, Ntethelelo Ntshangase, says they would like to get assistance from the community and businesses in order to fulfill their aims.

“We only provide food three times a week, so we decided that on those days we do not feed them, we have to introduce activities to empower them. So we had to tailor our services and we now help those who want to go back home. We also work with social workers from the city who help with counselling and take people to rehab. We also help the homeless, especially those who have lost their documents, to reapply for their IDs,” she said.

Speaking to the Berea Mail, Thandiwe Shabalala said she is grateful that there is an organisation in Durban that does this kind of work.

“As a homeless person I am happy that I can come here and wash my clothes, bath and be presentable. We are currently learning different skills like beadwork, gardening and crochet. We come from different parts of the country and we have different reasons why we are here, but it is good to learn and encourage each other as women,” she said.

Contact details

www.sile2okuhleorganisation.com

info@sile2okuhleorganisation.com

073 713 9767

123 Victoria Embarkment

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