East shoppers ‘fear’ beggars near popular mall
As the countrywide lockdown continues, the number of people in need has also grown.
Beggars at an intersection near a popular mall in Pretoria east have been an issue for years, but since the lockdown it has become worse.
“It is an ongoing issue,” said police spokesperson Warrant Officer Duane Lightfoot.
“At the beginning of the lockdown, we picked up homeless people and took them to designated shelters. We have since repeated this exercise several times, as many of them leave the shelters and go back to the streets where community members help them with food and money at the intersections,” said Lightfoot.
As the countrywide lockdown continues, the number of people in need has also grown.
Lightfoot said issuing fines proved to be fruitless.
“Garsfontein police will continue to pick them up and take them back to the shelters. In the meantime, we want to plead with the community not to give them anything on the streets, as this is hampering all our efforts to curb this problem.
“If residents want to help, rather contact the local churches who will direct you to authorised organisations who can help the needy,” said Lightfoot.
Customers visiting Woodlands shopping centre said they felt intimidated by beggars at the intersection of Garsfontein Road and De Villabois Mareuil Drive.
Homeless people standing at the intersection at entrance 1, 2 and 3 situated on Garsfontein Road on the way to Welbekend, have also become a huge headache for mall-goers.
Bull Security spokesperson French Jooste said there were regular raids, but that the beggars often fled into nearby bushes when they saw security personnel approaching.
“It is a huge problem. We chase them away often, but they keep coming back,” said Jooste.
Hestia Ferreira, a shopper who went to Woodlands mall last week, said that beggars surrounded her vehicle as she stopped at the red light.
“It was terrible. I didn’t feel comfortable stopping at the intersection,” said Ferreira.
Another shopper, Belinda Holden who was on her way to the mall last week, said that “three young well-built men were standing at the intersection to entrance 4”.
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“They most definitely did not look like beggars. They were very intimidating, but luckily my husband was with me in the car,” said Holden.
Charné le Roux, who visited the mall on Sunday, said that she and her mother felt very unsafe stopping at the intersection.
“About 10 beggars walked to our cars, some of them knocking on our windows. We have pepper spray in the car, but that does not seem to bother them at all,” said Le Roux.
Woodlands general manager Lionel van Lis said they relied on the SAPS’s support as well as the three private security companies which patrol the roads around the mall, especially since the mall does not have jurisdiction in this area.
“It is unfortunate that the beggars would return, sometimes within minutes, after the police and private security companies assisted in removing them.
“We can confirm that zero incidents have been reported to us at the traffic lights outside Woodlands with regards to people begging, they are relatively passive and not ‘hostile’.
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“The beggars are at the traffic lights because they get food and money from vehicles passing by. We thus encourage our shoppers and community members to rather donate to the official charity in charge of feeding schemes in the area and to not give individually to them. This causes animosity among the people who live in the informal settlements,” said Van Lis.
“We also implore our shoppers to responsibly share only news and stories that have been verified by a credible and reliable source, and not to spread any fake news. Woodlands will always make a social media post informing our shoppers of anything that has happened at our mall,” she said.
If you hear of any incidents and would like verification, please email info@woodlandsboulevard.co.za or contact them via Facebook.
Woodlands has the below measures in place:
– Increased security compliment since lockdown
– Frequent meetings held with SAPS ensuring regular patrolling of the area
– Frequent communication with three private security companies who operate in the area
– Frequent communication with the main charity tasked with feeding schemes in the area.
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