For some, city pavements are home
ROSEBANK - Tumi Mogale (23) is woken up by the sound of hooting taxis and cars at the intersection of Jan Smuts Avenue and Bolton Road every morning.
And every night Mogale lays down his cardboard box on the pavement outside the shops on the busy road, and for the night, that is home.
However, Mogale and his friends know they are unwelcome residents of the suburbs.
“Growing up I never dreamt I’d be sleeping on the streets; I thought at my age I’d be working and supporting my grandmother back home,” he said.
The Klerksdorp man found himself stranded in Johannesburg at the age of 11 in 2001 after the man who brought him to the city left him behind.
Mogale said he and a few of his friends were convinced by a man from his hometown to travel to Johannesburg with him and help sell fruit and vegetables on the streets.
“At first, we made a few return trips and sold for him but one day, after a long day of selling vegetables, we got back to our meeting spot and he was not there,” he said.
“My friends and I waited at that spot for weeks but he never returned.”
Mogale has gone from boy to man living on the streets of Rosebank.
He said although he, together with other people living on the streets of Rosebank and surrounding areas, were viewed by the community as nothing more than just a social problem, each one of them had their own story and he believed none of them actually wanted to be living on the streets.
During his interview with The Gazette Mogale packed up his bedding and walked over to check on a 12-year-old boy – the youngest of the group – who lay beside a wall on Bolton Road, before making his way into the suburbs to look for a job.
Ward councillors Gordon Mackay (ward 90) and Andrew Stewart (ward 91) said the problem of homeless people in the area had increased drastically in the past few years.
The pair recently handed over 1 300 petitions to the council requesting that the problem of homelessness be acknowledged and addressed.
Mackay explained that many of those sleeping on the streets are employed in the area on a part-time basis but do not earn enough money to travel to and from their homes on a daily basis, and therefore end up squatting on the streets.
Mackay said he believed that the city council was unaware of how big the problem was and it was time for them to acknowledge it so that solutions could be established.
Stewart said there needed to be different approaches for the removal of the homeless as not all those living on the streets were dangerous or criminals.
“However, the problem is that it is not simple to identify who is harmless and who isn’t; involving law enforcement and social development in the approach may be the best option,” he said.
