Call for church to hand out food parcels elsewhere

A resident, Jan van Niekerk, has spearheaded a petition to request St Therese Catholic Church to shift its food parcel services away from Florentia.

Van Niekerk, who has lived in the area for 28 years, said the church hands out large food parcels on weekdays in Viljoen Street.

According to van Niekerk, this causes the homeless and jobless who flock to the street to make Florentia less desirable during the day. He said homeless people as far as Johannesburg and Midrand CBDs come to receive a parcel.

“I need to be clear, I don’t have an issue with St Therese offering food to the needy; however, I want them to shift their food service far away from Florentia. Over the past three years, the number of homeless and jobless people loitering around our homes, parks and general community areas has exponentially grown. This needs to change,” said van Niekerk.

Van Niekerk, who reiterated that Florentia has always been a peaceful and clean residential area, said he recently had two incidents that forced him to launch the petition.

“My helper who has been working for my family for years was threatened by homeless people loitering around the church on her way home. The second incident was one of the homeless people burning down our substation behind the KFC in Florentia,” he said.

Father Kevin Bugler of St Therese Catholic Church heeded the concern and said they consider serving the homeless and jobless somewhere else.

“Although we are not going to stop giving, we are now planning on doing this service elsewhere. Over a month we normally give out about 500 food parcels, which have been donated by people who make sacrifices to make this service possible,” he said.

Bugler told the RECORD that after doing this for years, they have never had someone complain about the work that they do.

“We are trying to do something good here, by helping people who live from hand to mouth. We often go to Eden Park and at times go to South Crest where we hand these parcels out. After doing this for years, the numbers only increased when the lockdown began,” he said.

Ward 37 councillor Tiaan Kotzé said dialogue and understanding between the parties is preferred over a petition process.

“Covid-19 has hit a lot of families harshly. While feeding schemes are welcomed, they should be in harmony with the local community. I supplied the resident with an explanation of how the petition process works. As the ward representative in the council, I have to hand in all petitions to the legislature on behalf of the residents,” he said.

Kotzé stressed the need for a homeless shelter.