EDITOR – Thank you and as per our discussion, I did take up the challenge to contact AE Burger to obtain clarity.
From the discussion, the following emerged:
The author refers to a period of three years, dating back 18 years ago when she was resident in Pietermaritzburg, when the YMCA or similar organisation appealed for no food or money be given to beggars. They instead recommended that a bottle, filled with whatever the intention was to give, be handed in at the church, which in turn handed it to the organisation that aims to supply relief to these individuals as a collective.
She is further of the opinion that churches, groups and councillors need to get together not only for Amanzimtoti but the entire eThekwini, and over and above prayer, raise funds to create sanctuaries for these people.
She raised the questions: Where do the street children come from? Why are they on the street? Where are their parents? While I was unable to answer her specifics, she appeared unaware that there are on average 3,500 people entering the city perimeter every week as surrounding local municipalities are becoming bankrupt and unable to sustain the increased demand. These people arrive with the expectation of a place to stay, food and work and finding that it does not meet their expectation, they filter onto the streets. Neither was she aware that some of them were migrant, substance dependent or of the opinion that people in Amanzimtoti tend to give easier, this as opposed to other areas in the city. I arrived at this explanation earlier this year, after I conducted interviews with no less than 32 migrants, car guards, prostitutes and homeless people.
She referred to a letter directed to, and an apparent response from, the late Nelson Mandela several years ago wherein she was assured that a similar problem in Amanzimtoti at that time would be addressed. The disappearance of street children soon after, was thus attributed to these promises and from what she was later led to believe by a person who was apparently one of these children (at the time allegedly four-years-old) and who apparently recognised her on the street several years later, they were placed in a safe house or sanctuary somewhere in KwaMakhutha, the location of which is unknown to her.
She further believes Mr Mandela also instructed the street children not to return to Amanzimtoti, as for the next three years she didn’t notice any further activities.
She volunteered at AMCUP and thus appears aware of the fact that they don’t just take people off the street and rehabilitate them, they have to be ‘clean’ and committed to staying ‘clean’ prior to acceptance by AMCUP. She however appeared ignorant that they have limited capacity.
She also refers to a couple that she reported to the welfare several years ago who were wandering the streets with an infant child. Noticing them back in town several years later and again begging along with a toddler, she took to scolding them about being too lazy to work and threatening them to leave town. She said failing this, she would again report them to both the police and welfare. They must have heeded the warning, as she didn’t see them again.
In answer to her question regarding the disappearance of street children during the 2010 World Cup, she was totally ignorant that they were actually taken off the streets of Durban and housed at the halfway house then operated by YMCA in Lower Illovo. This same establishment has since been vacated by YMCA and plundered, after the city failed to heed our request to extend A Centre That Serves’ (ACTS) lease in favour of a promised but as a yet to be implemented, halfway house. This after ACTS had indeed secured private funding and already had renovations underway in late 2013 going into 2014.
Irrespective of the recommended plan with the bottle, she however admits that she continues to give food and money to beggars and street children as she pities them and cannot bear listening to their cries of hunger or plight for food/money against the backdrop of tales of dead, sick or abandoned parents who are unable to support them.
From the some 30 minute discussion, there was unfortunately nothing new that could be applied to resolve our current or future problems. The reality is that the population explosion coupled with urbanisation is and will remain a problem for which I don’t believe there really is a final solution – it is more about how we manage the reality.
Our economy is not growing to the extent that it can accommodate even a fraction of the expectation, and the population is increasingly becoming dependent on government to find the solutions, create the jobs, feed, clothe and house the masses against a backdrop of increasing demands for social grants. For example, our city is sustained by contributions from less than 10% of its population.
But I also have to agree with AE Burger, who in herself appears a desperate individual bent on making a difference, albeit I suspect she is being exploited by feeding habits other than hunger. It is sometimes very difficult to say no when you can see a person is starving.
I do however remain open to suggestions as who knows, maybe someone has a real solution, or a real means of job creation, or a real outcome-based plan – who knows?
AE Burger is just one of many desperate individuals who continue to pray and hope for a miracle.
CLLR ANDRE BEETGE
