{"id":242689,"date":"2022-11-11T13:59:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/we-begged-them-not-to-take-our-belongings\/"},"modified":"2022-11-11T13:59:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T11:59:12","slug":"we-begged-them-not-to-take-our-belongings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/we-begged-them-not-to-take-our-belongings\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe begged them not to take our belongings\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has prevented about 30 people from living under Grahamstown Bridge. Some of those chased away say they had lived there for many years as it is ideal for collecting recycling material and also close to piecemeal job opportunities. Photo: Mkhuseli Sizani<\/p>\n

About 30 people, some of whom say they have lived for many years under the Grahamstown Bridge in North End, Gqeberha, have been removed by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Security guards have since been posted at the bridge, day and night, to prevent people from returning.<\/p>\n

Luphumlo Klaas, known as Cool J, told GroundUp, \u201cWe were given notice on 24 October by a social worker. She told us that we must leave the place because the nearby companies were complaining about us that we were making the bridge filthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the social worker said they would get alternative accommodation and food.<\/p>\n

On 25 October, GroundUp published a story<\/a> about Gqeberha\u2019s recyclers and homeless communities, including the Grahamstown Bridge community.<\/p>\n

On 28 October, police, metro police and municipal security guards demolished their tents and took away their blankets and mattresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey showed no mercy to us, although we begged them not to take our belongings,\u201d said Klaas. \u201cThey only left us with the clothes that we were wearing. Since then, most of us have been scattered all over the area looking for a place to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nkosomzi Meva said he has been living under the bridge for 18 years. He said they had been evicted before, but previously no security guards had been posted.<\/p>\n

Sibabalwe Lumko said he has been living at the bridge for ten years because there was access to recycling materials. He was making R100 a day.<\/p>\n

He said some of them are now sleeping without blankets in tall grass near the railway line. \u201cWe wake up and our clothes are wet because of the dew,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shelter in Korsten is too far and we cannot afford to pay R30 a day [for the shelter fee],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mamela Ndamase, municipal spokesperson, said, \u201cIt was not an eviction.\u201d She said the land invasion unit had removed \u201cillegal\u201d structures on pavements and under the bridge, saying they were \u201can obstruction for motorists and the surrounding businesses as they were unable to access their premises\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said each person had been interviewed and offered transport to various homeless shelters. She said they had refused the offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, this is their right and freedom of choice. We cannot force them into staying at shelters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has prevented about 30 people from living under Grahamstown Bridge. Some of those chased away say they had lived there for many years as it is ideal for collecting recycling material and also close to piecemeal job opportunities. Photo: Mkhuseli Sizani About 30 people, some of whom say they have lived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-242689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/we-begged-them-not-to-take-our-belongings.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}