In November PE Express spoke to Gustav Rautenbach, DA spokesperson for Nelson Mandela Bay Metro safety and security, who said that homelessness was becoming a big problem, and a solution is needed before the situation gets out of hand.
He further said that it is vital that the various role players, such as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, the Department of Social Development, Non-Profit Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, and the SAPS, should work together to identify accommodation for homeless people throughout the metro.
Just last week, Ward 6 councillor, Gert Engelbrecht, and Ward 7 councillor, Brendon Pegram, collaborated with the assistance of SAPS in an operation to search the homeless people living under the bridge at the 3rd Avenue dip, in Newton Park.
“You see, it’s difficult because the homeless used to stay more towards the Baakens Valley side of the dip, which is regarded as a nature reserve. If they are under the bridge, they are on municipal property,” said Engelbrecht, commenting on the importance of the operation.
“What we do with SAPS is we go out every couple of weeks to try and organise the search so that we can go through the items to see if they have any illegal substances or stolen property or something like that on them.
“When we went out this time, we searched and found a bunch of keys that were marked. I think it was around 50 keys, more or less, that were marked. So we try to monitor them to the best of our abilities.
“We encourage them to either seek proper shelter, or go home so that they no longer live there, because they make a fire under that bridge and do all sorts of things, where it is open for the whole public to see which is not ideal.
“We’re trying our best, with the Newton Park Neighbourhood Watch and SAPS, to have regular walks to try to monitor their movement and see if they have any suspicious equipment on them, tools, or anything that they might use to break into houses. These guys are more bag scratchers. When the black bags get put out, they go around and they scratch in the bag, so they’re not necessarily your criminal that breaks into the house. We’re grateful to the watch and SAPS for constantly helping us monitor the situation,” he concluded.
Captain André Beetge, SAPS spokesperson, stressed that the operation was not a removal, but a patrol, where a search was conducted for possible illegal items.
“The only thing we can do from the police side is to patrol those areas and make sure that there’s no stolen stuff pitching up there. We’ve seen things like that taking place in the past, where we identified one or two, which we dealt with, which were arrested. We cannot remove those people – that’s eviction. The municipality has to apply to court to have those people removed from there.
“If the sheriff of the court comes to us with a court interdict, or with a court order that states that those people must be removed, we will; we will go with him; he will have his staff, his trucks, his personnel that would be breaking down structures, removing them, and moving them to different areas. The Land Invasion Department of the Metro and Social Work services would be involved because where do you go from there with those homeless people? There is none of that on the cards at the moment,” Beetge concluded.
Earlier this year Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Ward 2 councillor, Renaldo Gouws, made a plea to everyone in the ward to refrain from offering food and money to street dwellers.
He said that most of the people begging in the ward have been approached, and either offered shelter, employment, or other forms of assistance, and they have refused it.
“This clearly indicates that it’s more profitable to beg than it is to work, and that actual upliftment is not their priority,” he continued. Gouws claimed that crime has also been on the increase in the ward, and a number of these street dwellers have been seen participating in criminal activity. He further stated that quite a number have been arrested before and released, because of the lack of cases being opened.
“The municipality has observed an increase of people who are living and working in the streets along the Summerstrand beachfront in Ward 1 and Humewood in Ward 2, and other areas around the metro. As this trend occurs, the municipality timely profiles those found on the streets to assess their circumstances and to determine the necessary intervention,” said NMBM Media Liaison officer, Mamela Ndamase, in response in February this year.
“In most cases people who are living and working in the streets resist intervention offered to them, and based on the information given most of them do have family homes. However, they find themselves on the streets because of various reasons. The process that is followed is as follows. They are profiled, and those willing for intervention are captured on our system, and relevant departments and external stakeholders follow due process to settle them permanently.”
Contact details for local shelters:
- Vistarus: 041 484 1106
- MES: 041 451 0398
- Maranatha: 041 586 0017
- Jerusalem Ministries: 041 581 7089
- Healing Hands: 061 627 0230/076 959 0812
- Bet Sheekoom: 041 582 3321
- Protea Place of Safety: 041 585 8577
- Ethembeni Safe Home for the Elderly: 063 368 9850
