WITH thousands homeless people on the streets of Durban, the right to housing is a luxury many do not have. As South Africa commemorates Human Right’s Day the Northglen News hears one man’s journey from street child to budding entrepreneur and how a Redhill based NPO is assisting the homeless.
The Wellness Centre Trust in Redhill aims to walk alongside the homeless to equip them with job skills. Michael Nzama was attending a mentorship groups at the centre last week. Nzama said he was a street child living on Riverside Road in Durban North.
“The right to housing is very important. I was a street kid. I stayed on the streets for a while because my parents chased me away because I was not working and had no income to bring home. My stepmother chased me away because she was not my real mother. If you don’t have a house, it’s difficult to find a job – if you are on the street and it’s raining, your clothes get wet because there’s no shelter. Crime is another problem when you stay outside,” he said.
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Without a home, Nzama could not keep his belongings safe, or improve his life.
“When you are on the street you lose every hope because there is no one there who cares for you. If you are hungry you go to the dustbin and you sleep under a bridge because you don’t have an income. There are a lot of shelters in town but you have to pay at least R40 a day and you stay with 50 to 60 people in the same room. In the morning your bag is gone,” he said.
For founder of the Wellness Centre Trust, Eloise Briggeman, rural development could lower the number of job seekers ending up on the streets of Durban.
“The attraction to the city is for individuals to find jobs. Hence there is a lack of housing and overpopulation. With many people unable to find employment, we have people living in informal settlements and homeless people on the streets. The way I see it, the government should start developing rural areas- developing clinics, schools, shops and take always. Through this they would invite businesses to start developing in the rural areas,” she said.
Also read: Durban North churches break bread with the homeless
“A lot of our candidates who come to Durban to seek employment, are from rural areas and during the Christmas period, they go back to the rural areas, to their families. If we start developing the rural areas, there’s no need for people to come and look for employment in the city as they could be employed at a clinic, shop or be able to sustain their own small business with enough customers to support them in the area. My perspective is that if we start developing the rural areas, there will be less influx of people into the city and less density in the city with regard to homeless people and informal settlements. They could have a viable and sustainable lifestyle in the rural area they come from,” added Briggeman.
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