Durban dumps its vagrants on Umdoni
Nobody can say whether this was the first such 'dumping', but local experts speculate that this could well be the cause of a sudden spike in serious crime in the Umdoni area.
A DURBAN Metro convoy of vehicles was caught red-handed by the Mid South Coast Mail attempting to dump scores of vagrants somewhere in the Umdoni area yesterday.
Local units of the SAPS were tipped off and there was a heated confrontation at the Scottburgh N2 off-ramp.
The SAPS smartly turned the convoy around and escorted it back to Durban.
Nobody can say whether this was the first such ‘dumping’, but local crime experts speculate that this could well be the cause of a sudden spike in serious crime in the Umdoni area.
“These vagrants are forced to rob or hijack, sometimes violently, to get back to where they were taken from,” said one expert who did not want to be named. “There is nothing for them to do here.”
The Mail’s sister newspaper, the South Coast Sun, reported that Durban Metro was doing the same thing to Amanzimtoti some weeks ago.
It is now suspected that, following this exposure, Metro merely moved their ‘Clean My City’ programme further south.
A plain clothes Durban Metro officer with the convoy tried to explain that they were merely ‘helping the people get back to their homes’.
However the vagrants, who were packed into an unlicensed Durban Metro vehicle like sardines, shouted desperately through the meshed windows that they lived in Inanda, ‘Whoonga Park’ (Albert Park in Durban) and on the Durban beachfront. They added they were taken against their will.
The matter seems to be a hot potato among the hierarchy of both Durban Metro and the SAPS, with officials either refusing to comment, passing the buck or just not answering calls.
Piecing it together
• “Violent clashes erupted (in Durban’s Umbilo) after vagrants and whoonga addicts were blamed for spiralling crime in the city.” – Daily News June 11.
• “Homeless people who were forcibly removed from Durban and dropped off in Amanzimtoti last week saw most of them walking back to the city.” South Coast Sun 18th July
• eThekwini communications head Tozi Mthethwa: “The daily operations (dropping vagrants in Amanzimtoti) are in line with the Clean my City Programme, launched by Mayor Cllr James Nxumalo in March, to address the social ills in the community and are part of on-going interventions to deal with vagrancy and littering within the city (Durban).” South Coast Sun, July 18.
