Don’t give vagrants money or food – ward councillor
JOBURG - Ward 72 Councillor Steven Kruger urged members of the community not to give money, food or clothing to vagrants at traffic intersections.
Kruger said he received a number of complaints by community members of what he described as “displaced people” begging and loitering at traffic intersections. “It is a major issue particularly in residential areas, outside people’s houses,” he said.
“We’ve tried to help them by getting social workers involved who offered them accommodation and help to get [them] back to their families,” he said. Kruger added that the vagrants would live in the centres for a few days and then return to begging on the street corner, “because they make more money there,” he claimed.
Kruger said community members need to re-evaluate why they give displaced people money and clothes. “All they do is buy alcohol and that results in other people gathering in the area.
“They stay in the area because people are sustaining their lives by giving them money and food. That actually creates a problem. Community members need to think whether they are really helping displaced people by giving them clothes, because all they do is sell the clothes and buy alcohol,” he said.
Kruger said residents should report displaced people to their local ward councillor and not sustain their life on the street by giving them hand-outs. “It perpetuates the problem as opposed to solving it,” he said.
