Covid-19: Displaced people turned away from local schools, now staying in Hillbrow

PARKTOWN – The Department of Social Development had announced that displaced people would be placed in certain schools, however this wasn't the case when the displaced people were taken there.

March 28, 2020

Sarah Koning and Naidine Sibanda 1 minute read

A site manager said there will be no displaced people at the school.

Displaced people are not staying at Parktown Boys’ High School hostel, despite statements from the Department of Social Development saying that this would be the case during the lockdown.

The Gazette visited Parktown Boys’ High School on the afternoon of 27 March to find no displaced people living at the school.

Site supervisor from 24/7 Security at Parktown Boys, Oupa Lathubu, said, “The necessary arrangements were not made yesterday in order to prepare a place for the displaced people.”

“There are no [displaced] people staying at Parktown Boys and they are not going to come here.”

Lathubu said that he was under the impression that the displaced people would go to other schools, including King Edward VII Preparatory School and Jeppe Boys, among others.

On 26 March, Rosebank Management District Precinct Manager, Lerato Khiba, said there were 20 displaced people who needed accommodation in Rosebank.

The Department of Social Development had announced that displaced people would be placed in certain schools, however this wasn’t the case when the displaced people were taken there.

Khiba said, “My security has taken them to the schools mentioned but they have been turned away. All of the identified schools claim that proper procedures from government were not met and they are not opened.”

On the morning of 27 March, she said the 20 people in Rosebank had spent the night on Sturdee Avenue, in Rosebank. Later during the day, Khiba said the police had taken the displaced people to Hillbrow ‘where it’s already packed and there are about 100 people there’.