Mthatha homeless roam streets despite lockdown

Municipal authorities have come under fire for allowing homeless people to roam the streets of Mthatha despite the country being on lockdown.

A long-serving KSD councillor, the DA's Raymond Knock, accused both KSD and the OR Tambo district municipality of dragging their feet and failing to secure safe shelter for those living on the street.

However, the department of social development in OR Tambo denied this, saying the homeless are being sheltered in a building in town.

DispatchLIVE this week saw several homeless people walking the streets, and some were found rummaging through bins for food.

Knock said he saw two homeless people sleeping in front of a shop less than 10m from the Madeira police station.  

“All they [authorities] do is just sit in meetings all day.

“This is against the law. Those people are posing a risk to other people and they are also at risk [of contracting the coronavirus] themselves because they ask for money for food from other people.”

Knock said he had approached the KSD disaster unit, but was asked to provide names of the homeless people.

“The official said without their names there is nothing he can do about the situation,” Knock said, adding allowing people to roam freely went against the spirit of the lockdown.

The social development spokesperson in the OR Tambo region, Nomasakhe Nonxuba, denied authorities were doing nothing to get people off the streets.

She said many homeless people were taken to Eluxolweni Home near Ngangelizwe township, but it was found to be inadequate.

“We then took them to the Bosasa building in town, where mattresses and blankets were provided.

“But some of them ran away during the early hours of the morning.”

Nonxuba said some people had been taken away by their families while the rest fled back to the streets, adding “we don’t have anyone left”. 

She said an NGO had been roped in to help provide them with food on a daily basis.

Sandisile Hlomendlini, a 30-year-old from Ngqeleni, has been living on the streets for more than five years.

He said he had heard adults were turned away at the Bosasa building as the facility only catered for children.

“A [homeless] friend of mine went to Bosasa and was turned away.

“He was told there is no place for old homeless people.” 

A municipal councillor, who spoke to DispatchLIVE on condition of anonymity, said he had discovered that only children under 18 were allowed to stay at the Bosasa building.

“This tells you that there is no provision that has been made to shelter older homeless people, hence most of them are just roaming the streets,” the councillor said.

Nonxuba denied the shelter was only for those under 18 and that homeless people had been turned away.

She again insisted that they had run away, with someone complaining they were craving cigarettes.