In an effort to root out crime and grime, eThekwini Municipality has intensified its daily multi-disciplinary enforcement operations to clear and clean-up areas in the Municipality that have been taken over by vagrants.
The operations conducted by members of Metro Police in the CBD this week have shown visible improvements in areas such as King Dinuzulu Park, which were previously occupied by homeless people.
As part of the operation, approximately 400 vagrants were transported back to their homes in Umlazi, Umbumbulu, KwaMashu and Chatsworth.
The Municipality also conducted a large clean-up operation in Umbilo, Warwick Triangle, Sydney Road and Dalton Hostel.
Near the Dalton Hostel 40 shacks were demolished and about 60 vagrants were removed.
During a clean-up operation in Congella Park 12 shacks were demolished and 30 vagrants removed.
The daily operations are in line with the Clean my City programme launched by Mayor Cllr James Nxumalo in March to address the social ills in our community and are part of on-going interventions to deal with vagrancy and loitering within the City.
During interventions the City also provides social assistance to the vagrants while also enforcing by-laws.
Since the beginning of the interventions in April, 442 people have come forward to indicate their interest in assistance and all were referred to Dennis Hurley Centre (DHC) for services though only 365 people made it to DHC and out of those, 226 have returned for follow up interventions.
The City has engaged two non-government organisations such as ICARE and AGAPE to provide holistic interventions to street children, which includes the removal of children from the street.
ICARE also has a three month long rehabilitation programme that takes place at another centre outside the City which involves motivational, life skills and Abet programmes.
The organisation also has ICARE houses where those who have been rehabilitated are housed whilst they are being prepared for school.
The NGOs perform among other things, the following duties:
- They reach out to children living on the street. They also receive street children brought or referred to them by outreach workers or interested parties.
- They provide counselling services to every child brought to their attention and conduct an objective assessment of each child’s individual needs.
- They take appropriate action based on the individual’s identified needs, which includes, but not limited to, reunification and aftercare programmes.To ensure safety of children, they also work with the local shelters to provide children with a place to stay.
- They also teach street children various skills to help them break the cycle of poverty.
EThekwini Municipality is currently working in partnership with the Department of Social Development and Safer Cities to address the plight of children living and begging in the street.
On the 28th of April 2014, the eThekwini Municipality in partnership with the Department of Social Development launched the Standardised Programmes for Children Living and Working on the streets.
The programmes sought to achieve the following:
- To introduce standardised programmes to Service Providers working with Children Living and Working on the streets.
- To ensure that there is uniformity in the provision of services.
- To educate children and bring awareness about the dangers of living and working on the street.
- To educate children on how they can access programmes provided by the Municipality and the Department of Social Development.
The City has identified a facility in Illovo which will be used as a shelter for people who are homeless including drug users that are committed to receiving treatment. The facility requires renovations as it has been vandalised and damaged, security and operational costs. The costing for these is underway so as to enable the facility to be brought to a habitable state. On face value the facility will be able to accommodate approximately 100 people at a time. The facility once renovated will be able to offer skills development programmes that will also be linked to our Expanded Public Works Programme.
The City is also forging partnerships with other NGO’s that can provide accommodation for the homeless whilst they are linked with services including treatment, skills development, and Identity Documents.
The City, in line with its vision of being Africa’s most caring and liveable City and in partnership with other stakeholders, is committed to addressing the problem of homeless people including street children and finding a way of helping them break the cycle of poverty.
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