The Housing Company Tshwane (HCT) and partners recently hosted gender-based violence (GBV), substance abuse and femicide engagement with residents of the Marabastad Townlands in the Pretoria CBD.
The Townlands Social Housing development in Marabastad has 1 200 units, making it the largest social housing development in South Africa.
HCT said the invitations were sent to tenants for an awareness campaign on June 28. Its objective was to support and educate tenants as well as create awareness of social ills in the development.
Community development officer at HCT, Kgadi Matsena said: “This campaign was against the backdrop of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking observed annually on June 26.
The purpose of the day is to create awareness of drug and alcohol abuse and to prioritise active co-operation to create drug-free societies throughout the world. To observe this important day, Housing Company Tshwane has lined up various programmes that will highlight the plight of GBV, femicide, and drug and substance abuse and offer assistance where needed.”
Members of the Gauteng Provincial Department of Community Safety, local CPF, SAPS Tshwane District: GBV division and former drug dealers/users were present to address attendees on their experiences and offer support.
Matsena said that well-documented societal ills have had social and economic implications and led to serious disruption of family and community harmony.
Unsavoury elements such as violence, joblessness, gangsterism and the general breakdown of the social fibre in communities can often be directly linked to alcohol and drug abuse.
HCT said that it is committed to assisting tenants impacted by drug and substance abuse through the Local Drug Action Committee (LDAC) which serves as a co-ordinating mechanism to ensure the effective use of all available resources to fight substance abuse.
The multifaceted approach covered different topics that each speaker addressed. Matsena said like any other area, the townlands are not spared social ills.
“Townlands Social Housing, just like any other area, is not immune to the scourge of societal problems,” Matsena said.
“We’ve had a fair share of these problems, particularly on weekends when most people are under the influence of drugs and/or substance abuse. In some instances, our caretakers have had to intervene to remedy the situation and restore peace. We encourage victims to report such incidents to law enforcement authorities,” Matsena said.
Matsena said both HCT and the city will have to keep the campaigns ongoing and not only be active when South Africa is observing the 16 Days of Activism for no violence against women and children, which runs from November 25 to December 10.
She also called for community-based programmes to be implemented that involve local leaders, activists, and community members in addressing and preventing GBV as well as programmes that engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and preventing violence.
“Housing Company Tshwane advocates for violence-free communities, as an entity entrusted to provide housing to the residents of Tshwane. We need to ensure that we provide a safe and harmonious haven to those who find homes in the many complexes we own and manage. We hope our tenants will heed the call to break the silence. Enough is enough!” Matsena said.
HCT looks forward to conducting its other community-focused programmes during school holidays. Their client services department has a programme aimed at teaching the youth about abstinence, teenage pregnancies and child abuse.
It also manages its Self-Sufficient Elderly Residents (SSEs) with its ongoing elderly abuse campaigns and routine health checks and aims to continue to create public awareness of various societal ills in its developments and throughout the city.
For substance abuse, the city runs a 24-hour toll-free helpline to provide support for matters related to substance abuse. The HopeLine can be contacted on 0800 611 197 or 0800 467 347.
For GBV and Femicide Members of the public are urged to contact the GBVF call centre on 0800 428 428 to report acts of violence, and to use the SAPS’s complaints line 0800 333 1777 to report poor service by members of the SAPS.
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