DURING a recent eThekwini Municipality’s executive committee (Exco) sitting, councillor André Beetge expressed frustration after the deputy mayor and chairperson of the Security and Emergency Services Cluster, Zandile Myeni, announced that the long-awaited report on homelessness in the city was not ready.

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This comes as the City faces a homelessness crisis, which has led to the revival of the Sakhithemba Homeless Shelter in Lower Illovo. eThekwini said the R13.6m shelter will offer safe accommodation, skills development, job opportunities, and access to social services, including professional social workers, a library, and learnership programmes for the homeless.

Myeni told the Exco that she had reviewed the draft report but found it lacking the level of detail requested. Beetge said the report had been demanded from the Safer Cities Department a week earlier, and the Exco was expecting a comprehensive overview of the number of homeless individuals across the entire municipality, together with the City’s short, medium, and long-term strategies to screen, accommodate, rehabilitate, skill and reintegrate affected individuals back into mainstream society.

Beetge questioned why the department would now struggle to provide the information, emphasising that homelessness was not a new challenge but one that had escalated steadily in both scale and intensity. He argued that the department should have no difficulty consolidating its core responsibilities into an updated report for the benefit of both Exco and the public.

Exco member, Nkosenhle Madlala, however, defended the delay, saying it was in everyone’s best interest as the additional time would allow all affected departments to align their inputs to ensure the final submission was accurate and comprehensive.

eThekwini plans to house the homeless far from the Durban CBD to boost the city’s image. A few days before the Exco meeting, Beetge and other Exco members conducted an oversight visit to Che Guevara Road (formerly Moore Road) to witness first-hand the escalating challenges posed by growing levels of homelessness in the inner city.

“The visit confirmed the urgent need for decisive intervention, as conditions in the area reflect a deepening humanitarian and urban management crisis that the eThekwini Municipality has repeatedly failed to address,” said Beetge.

He added that collaboration with civil society and the private sector will be crucial to ensuring a holistic and sustainable response.