Albert Park intervention strategies take shape
Following an on site inspection of Albert Park, the city is developing strategies to deal withe the social ills that are prevalent in the area.
A COMMITMENT by various takeholders to address the social ills in the Albert Park area was signed at a meeting called by mayor James Nxumalo at Durban city hall on Wednesday.
The stakeholders who form part of the Qalakabusha Albert Park Intervention Programme include eThekwini Municipality, provinical governemnt, private entities, police and NGOs. Their aim is to address the problems surrounding Albert Park and make it a safer, cleaner and more attractive area.
The parties pledged to work together to deal with the challenges in Albert Park and other parts of the City. Nxumalo emphasised that challenges of vagrancy, loitering, drug-abuse and criminal elements at Albert Park had to be dealt with as a matter of urgency as this not only tarnished the image of the city, but also reflected the socio-economic challenges facing society.
He said a multi-disciplinary approach needed to be implemented as the problems at Albert Park touched on all sectors of life; including social, mental and economic factors. “During our interaction with the vagrants at Albert Park, some of them indicated they would like to be re-united with their families and go back to school while others said that they would like to be rehabilitated so they can stop taking drugs. It is our duty to put in place strategic measures that will ensure these people receive the necessary help so that in the long-run we do not find ourselves facing the same problem,” said Nxumalo, adding that it had also been noted that the groups were slowly moving into other parts of the city which needed to be curbed as a matter of urgency. He said this initiativewas part of the Clean My City Programme aimed at ensuring that citizens take ownership of the city’s cleanliness and maintanance.
Dr Musa Gumede, Deputy City Manager of the Community and Emergency Services Cluster who is also leading the multi-disciplinary task team said several key intervention strategies had been identified. These include; the screening of drug-users, rehabilitation, re-integration into society, re-unification with families, issuing of identity documents, skills development and job creation and drug supply reduction. He said the team was considering establishing a One Stop Intervention Programme where drug-users could access services in a multi-sectoral setting closer to Albert Park. Another intervention would be to set up a hotline for members of the public to access information about their children.
The drug-supply reduction approach would include identification of production and manufacturing sources; identification and rehabilitation of bad buildings; enforcement of bylaws and the provision of information and intelligence on drug-dealing.
The task team agreed that by June 2014 reasonable progress should have been made in dealing with social challenges at Albert Park and they should be able to assess whether the intervention strategies are working or not.
