Homeless choose the streets over Covid-19 shelters

The homeless, rounded up and sheltered at various facilities during the peak of the Covid-19 hard lockdown, have returned their normal lives on the streets, leaving the temporary shelters erected to house them abandoned.

The temporary tent shelters erected in stadiums in Tshwane, including the one in Caledonian and Trans-Oranje Stadium, have mainly been abandoned, expect for a few hours each night, as some of their occupants come back to sleep.

According to Sihle Ndzuza,33, he and four others in his group were rounded up by Metro police and taken to the Trans-Oranje rugby stadium, West of the city. They said, however, there were safety and food problems at the facility.

“The only reason we stayed was because police were patrolling the streets but the place was chaotic. When you have to eat you must fight, because there is not enough food and others had weapons,” he said.

Ndzuza, who has lived on the streets of Pretoria for the past five years, is from Mpumalanga and survives by washing taxis at Bloed Taxi rank in the Pretoria CBD.

He said there was a time when they were abandoned for days with, little food and no security.

A view from the inside of a homeless shelter in Tshwane where Gauteng Social Development MEC Dr. Nomathemba Mokgethi came to address residents, 28 September 2020, Pretoria. Social Development in partenrship with various government departments such as Home Affairs set out to ensure all those requiring ID documents or birth certificates can apply for them while the Department of Health assisted homeless with health care needs and NPO’s provide skills and job readiness programmes. Picture: Jacques Nelles

According to Ndzuza, though it was good to have a place to sleep, bath and a warm meal for a change; overcrowding soon became a problem as authorities brought in more people. Soon clashes broke out over food, missing items and drugs.

“We have a meal in the morning, but there would not have enough for later on and that is when people started pushing and shoving. Like many others, I decided to leave after the easing of lockdown,” Ndzuza said.

Tshwane MMC for Community and Social Development Services, Thabisile Vilakazi, said not everybody has left, saying in fact many people had settled into the temporary shelters, including community halls and churches.

She said since the facilities currently used would have to be returned to their original purposes at some stage, but the ultimate plan was to bring a permanent solution to the housing of homeless.

Vilakazi said the oversight on the social development department fell within the provincial ambit when the Metro was placed under administration. She said her priority was now to set up a special homeless unit within her department that will be responsible for handling the process of housing the homeless.

“We have identified six facilities across all the regions for the purpose of sheltering the homeless. What we have realised is that people in the city centre are from across our regions so we have identified facilities there,” she said.

Vilakazi said some of the facilities were already there but in need of refurbishment and that some belonged to the Gauteng provincial department.

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