City reviews it vagrants strategy
The issue of vagrants will be discussed at a meeting on 4 September.
eTHEKWINI Municipality has conceded that the rounding up of the city's beggars and homeless and moving them out of the city is not achieving any success in dealing with the growing vagrant problem.
This was admitted at a meeting held on Friday, 22 August, where the municipality's strategy in dealing with the issue was reviewed. The aim of the meeting was to come up with a better way to deal with the city's vagrants, many of whom are battling an addiction to whoonga.
According to Umbilo CPF chairperson, Ben Madokwe, there was however no major outcome from the meeting.
“It was agreed by those attending that things need to be revisited. I hope the group will deliberate and try find a way forward at the next meeting on 4 September,” he said.
eThekwini head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said the municipality still considered the removal of vagrants from the City’s streets a priority and as part of its ongoing interventions, it was offering vagrants psycho-social support, where it encouraged them to meet with social workers at least three times so a treatment or rehabilitation plan can be chosen.
“Vagrants are admitted into our rehabilitation centres according to the level of motivation they show. In June, 18 people were admitted into our centres. Out of the 18, four asked to be released and three were asked to leave due to unbecoming conduct. Next week we expect to have 12 more entering rehab.
We also offered assistance with acquiring the necessary documentation, including identity documents. We found there are two groups, those who have never had IDs and those who lost them. Out of 89 that applied, 29 new IDs have been received and 40 re-applicants have received theirs,” she said.
Mthethwa said during the outreach programme earlier in the year, five people asked to be taken home. Out of the five, only three were accepted back by their communities.
“There are also skills development programmes in place where vagrants are asked to attend and learn skills such as bead work and wood work. Currently only 10 have come in repetitively. The meeting on Friday was aimed at evaluating the work done so far, and how the City can motivate more vagrants going forward,” she said.
