{"id":164162,"date":"2020-09-01T14:04:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T12:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/cape-towns-cruel-and-expensive-approach-to-homeless-people\/"},"modified":"2020-09-01T14:04:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T12:04:07","slug":"cape-towns-approach-to-homeless-people-is-cruel-and-expensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-towns-approach-to-homeless-people-is-cruel-and-expensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town\u2019s approach to homeless people is cruel and expensive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Homeless people in the now closed Strandfontein camp tried, in April, to break down a fence in order to escape. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n

There are few cities around the world that don\u2019t have homeless people. Most, including South African cities, hurriedly implemented lockdowns to manage the coronavirus pandemic. So the issue of how to support homeless people to comply with social distancing and hygiene regulations was not unique to Cape Town.<\/p>\n

What was unique was Cape Town\u2019s response. It took the opportunity to live out the fantasies of its most conservative leaders \u2013 Mayor Dan Plato and the Mayco member in charge of law-enforcement, JP Smith \u2013 to remove homeless people from the streets.<\/p>\n

Homeless people were rounded up and forced into a pandemic-inappropriate camp on a muddy field in Strandfontein miles away from the city centre. The camp was condemned by human rights organisations before the City aborted the project.<\/p>\n

According to MEC of Local Government Anton Bredell, responding<\/a> to questions I asked in the provincial legislature, the cost of this six-week fiasco was R53 million.<\/p>\n

According to the City, 2,000 homeless people were accommodated. Many didn\u2019t stay for the full six-week period. But even at the full 2,000-person complement, it cost R628 per person per day.<\/p>\n

The biggest ticket item was tent hire. According to Bredell, hiring marquees cost nearly R44 million. That is an astonishing number. I have asked further questions about the legality of the contracting, and referred the matter to the Office of the Auditor-General.<\/p>\n

Even battle-scarred South Africans have been dismayed by the opportunism of the politically-connected to secure pandemic-related contracts. Though it has shown its stripes, over and over again, corruption is not the sole preserve of the ANC.<\/p>\n

In Cape Town, the City had been skirmishing with homeless people for more than a year when the pandemic arrived. It had been fining them, confiscating their belongings \u2013 and drafted new regulations empowering it to order them out of the city and not to return.<\/p>\n

According to the Western Cape government there are approximately 4,000 homeless people in Cape Town. There are 1,499 shelter beds available, jointly funded by the municipality and provincial Department of Social Development. So there\u2019s a shortfall.<\/p>\n

There are similar shortfalls in other cities such as Tshwane, Johannesburg and Durban. In these cities, municipalities used empty community halls, stadiums and other state-owned properties to house and feed homeless people at several sites across their metropolitan areas.<\/p>\n

For its Strandfontein project, the City over-rode concerns raised by community organisations and the local councillor \u2013 initiating the camp on 1 April.<\/p>\n

An NGO worker reported<\/a> that homeless people were scared because they did not know what to expect, and some \u201cvanished into caves and up the mountain.\u201d The DA\u2019s Mayco Member Felicity Purchase reportedly promised<\/a> residents she would go with private security to find those \u201chiding out\u201d in the mountains.<\/p>\n

That week, hundreds of homeless people were rounded up and bussed to the camp. Some said they had been lured with promises of fantastical accommodation, meals and medical care. But on their arrival, hundreds of people were crammed together into three marquees and made to sleep on the cold floors until mattresses arrived a week later.<\/p>\n

Although addiction rates at the site were estimated at over 50%, reports<\/a> confirmed the preferred treatments were not available. The South African Human Rights Commission received reports<\/a> highlighting the lack of drug withdrawal support, as well as poor hygiene, lack of hot water and overall insufficient medical care. The international medical humanitarian organisation, M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res, raised concerns that up to 600 individuals were crowded in to one tent and said<\/a> there was evidence of \u201cviolations of international humanitarian standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

I, too, conducted an oversight visit to the camp, and was horrified by what I saw.<\/p>\n

But all criticism was disregarded by the city.<\/p>\n

JP Smith, the political head of law enforcement in Cape Town, termed the camp \u201cabsolutely tranquil<\/a>\u201d and said that, \u201cthe whole of this Strandfontein story is going to end up being a very good news story.\u201d Within the first weeks, several incidents of violence broke out; a teenage girl<\/a> was allegedly raped; a person died<\/a>; there were allegations of a gang rape, and those who tried to escape were arrested<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the information Bredell was compelled to reveal in the legislature, it becomes clearer why Smith, as the head of the City\u2019s Safety and Security Directorate, was keen to defend the camp. More than 90% of the R53 million costs was spent by Smith\u2019s Safety and Security Directorate on hiring the tents and procuring additional private security.<\/p>\n

The R43.8 million that Smith\u2019s Directorate spent on tent hire might have:<\/p>\n