Don’t give to beggars, warns community group

SAVE Our Berea stands by the opinion that motorists should not give to beggars.

This comes after a beggar, who often only sports one arm, recently attempted to stab a young man on a scooter at the intersection of Stephen Dlamini (Essenwood) and St Thomas Roads.

According to Cheryl Johnson, this intersection has become a hotspot for beggars.

“On the afternoon of the attempted stabbing the police were called. ‘One Arm’ promptly took flight and no one could find him. It took him only a day before he was back in business. Bylaws are imposed by the municipality of an area. Clear and obvious rules to make sure that all citizens understand that they have to behave within certain parameters so that we can all co-exist happily and safely within the confines of our towns and cities. I would like to suggest that something has gone drastically wrong with this model!” said Johnson.

She said stopping at a robot has become an extremely unpleasant affair for motorists.

“Firstly you dare not have your window open. Gesturing beggars, many with ‘afflicted limb syndrome’, converge on your car, especially if you are a woman driving alone. They hobble in and out of the traffic and often land up in front of cars which are unable to drive forward when the robot goes green. Many people report they bang on their windows, women are often sworn at. Some of them bash their bags of rubbish against the side of a vehicle when ignored or told to go away,” she said.

Johnson said since this has been an issue on the streets of Berea for quite some time, vagrants were becoming more and more insistent and aggressive. “They urinate wherever they please and litter is evident wherever they stand. The police, who have more urgent matters to deal with, seem to have given up on picking them up, as they simply return again and again. Our parks are a haven for them, not a place that anyone wants to be as the sun is setting. Those beautiful trees and shrubs provide shelter for them and their nefarious activities. Those same parks that were planned to provide a safe and peaceful place in nature for the general public. It seems the Ethekwini general bylaws are not worth the paper they are written on,” she said.

Johnson said people needed to be asking why Ethekwini was not upholding and enforcing bylaws.

Don’t give beggars money, don’t give them anything. You are not helping anyone in the long term by keeping them attracted to a life of vagrancy. Let’s make our voices heard. Call Metro on 031 361 0000 if you feel threatened by a beggar, they will respond. This, however, is a short term measure,” she said.

Resident, Wayne Grundy, came up with an idea to discourage residents and motorists giving money to beggars, last year, which involves putting up signs at intersections, educating people to ‘give responsibly’. However it was difficult to get permission and a waiver to put robot posters up as the charge was around R15 a day each. “The idea is to put the logo and contact details of organisations such as I Care on the posters, so as to direct citizens to sponsor these organisations. This gives the public an alternative, instead of giving directly to the street children,” he said.

Gail Elson from I Care, said: “It is disturbing to hear that beggars are becoming violent – I think one of the reasons may be desperation and the other could possibly be the use of whoonga – whoonga is becoming a huge problem in Durban and the municipality and various stakeholders are in the process of trying to deal with this issue.”

She said Wayne Grundy had spoken to I Care about the posters previously and mentioned he would look into a sponsorship for them.

“We think the posters are a great idea,” she said.