My home is where my pipe is…
or my cardboard boxes find a place to stand.
The town has become a haven for unemployed people who sleep wherever they find a hole.
That hole is even in cement pipes right next to the N11, near Nasaret.
Motorists say that they regularly see people crawling out of two pipes.
When the Middelburg Observer went to investigate, sleeping bags were found inside the pipes, indicating that people are indeed sleeping in the pipes.
But it is not only in pipes where people live.
Throughout the town, homeless people make their sleeping places out of cardboard boxes at night.
“They are crawling out their shelters like bugs,” says the owner of Titon Security, Mr Tonie Etsebeth.
His response officers have seen a huge increase in people sleeping on the street.
Cowen Ntuli Street is popular, but also under the Meyer Street and Lilian Ngoyi Street bridges.
The influx of unemployed homeless people has, according to Mr Etsebeth, caused an increase in cable thefts in particular.
“They steal every piece of cable.”
120m of street light cable was stolen on Mandela Drive near the Cowen Ntuli Street intersection and more cable thefts were reported on Thursday evening.
Security companies have their hands cut off because nothing prevents the homeless from staying on the streets like this.
“What the town needs is a facility with communal toilets and washing facilities where these people can stay in the evenings”.
Juanita Groenewald, chairperson of the Middelburg Community Policing Forum (CPF), says the CPF has removed numerous illegal structures along the Klein Olifants River where homeless people were hiding.
Residents have again complained in the past week about the garbage dumps that homeless people are causing along the river.
Under the bridge near the fire station, a large pile of garbage has risen again.
“We clean and remove structures but it’s not long before they’re back.”
However, it’s not just along the river but also on the stoep in front of businesses and even next to houses where the homeless are making fires, urinating and leaving a smelly mess behind.
She agrees with Mr Etsebeth that petty crime has increased tremendously.
The wave of young homeless drug addicts living on the streets has increased crime.
They steal braai grills, garden hoses and smaller items just to satisfy their drug cravings.
“We need a place where these people can be housed in the evenings, but they don’t like discipline, who is going to take the responsibility and bear the costs?”
Meanwhile, the homeless are becoming more and more, the garbage they leave behind is increasing, crime is increasing and they don’t give a damn because it’s about survival and sticking their head in a hole for the night…even if it’s a cement pipe.
@middelburgobserver Middelburg has become a haven for vagrants who sleep wherever they find a hole, and who are quite innovative when it comes to building shelters for the night.
