The lack of knowledge of what to do to help the homeless in the Capital City could exacerbate the problem, an expert has asserted.
Homeless Upliftment Projects (HUP) social worker Zanele Mngadi brought this to light with an aim of encouraging community members to learn more about homelessness and the appropriate ways of solving it.
“Community members need to be educated about the problem of homelessness in order to have a clear understanding about the issue and effective ways of solving it,” Mngadi said.
She said the best thing the residents could do to help homeless people is to understand or identify the cause of each individual’s homelessness and when possible refer them to the a shelter capable of helping them regain their independence such as HUP.
“Good Samaritans often donate money directly to the homeless not knowing that some are on drugs and would use it to feed their addiction rather than buy food,” she said.
She added that such an exercise is wasteful as it promotes the use of drugs as well as homelessness.
“Please refrain from donating money directly to the homeless but donate it to non-profit organisations providing professional support to those homeless.
“Burning the property of homeless people in a bid to discourage them from staying in a particular area is unacceptable as it does not solve the problem of homelessness… it makes it worse.”
Mngadi said that those who burn the property of homeless people are motivated by anger, and sometimes hatred, those who give money to them are motivated by love and desire to make a difference in society but are unaware that they may be making the problem worse.
She said it was important for residents to know that various situations lead to homelessness and that anyone could end up homeless.
“People become homeless for various reasons such as being evicted from rented apartments after losing a job, lack of job opportunities, mental health problem and family feuds, among others.”
She said homeless people faced a lot of problems in the street as men are attacked by criminals and women are raped.
Homeless Siboniso Ntunja said he came to Pretoria from KwaZulu-Natal early last year to seek for a job.
“I stayed at my friend’s flat for about a month before finding a job at one of the contractors companies,” Ntunja said, adding that he then lived alone as his friend had relocated to Limpopo.
He said his problems began when his contract expired in April this year.
“Life is now difficult, I never thought that I would be homeless one day.”
The former Durban beach lifesaver said his dream is to return to lifesaving or work at a municipal swimming pool.
He said he regretted failing to renew his lifesaving permit on time as it had led to him losing.
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
