THIS STATEMENT TO THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT WAS DELIVERED BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL YESTERDAY.
28 AUGUST 2020
CITY OF CAPE TOWN’S CRUEL CALL FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE TO STARVE
Yesterday, the office of Mayco Member Zahid Badroodien, responsible for Community Services and Health in the City of Cape Town said that they are “appealing to all communities to stop feeding homeless people on the streets, to stop giving clothes, to stop giving money.”
They said “by enabling a homeless person to remain on the street we lock them out of an opportunities that are available in shelters.”
This approach – starve people on the streets so that they are forced to go to shelters – assumes of course that there are enough shelters for the homeless.
Last year, Mayco Member JP Smith was quoted by the Sunday Times saying that are indeed enough shelter spaces for all the homeless in the City of Cape Town.
However, the Western Cape’s Minister for Social Development confirmed to this house that last year there was a shortage of thousands of shelter spaces within the City of Cape Town.
The Minister indicated that just 1499 shelter spaces were available last year for the estimated 7000 or more homeless people.
Had the DA given R43 million to the shelters, instead of renting tents for a few weeks, the annual budget to city shelters would been tripled.
Who got that tent tender we all wonder? R43 million for 6 weeks rent … when you can buy a whole marquee for just R85,000.
Waste and corruption and now the DA is asking all communities to let people starve to death on the streets.
Neither our city nor provincial governments provide enough shelters to protect and care for the homeless. Now the DA is asking the communities to stop feeding starving people too?
The DA’s treatment of homeless and hungry people is mad. Fining them and now telling people to stop feeding the hungry … even when you know there are not enough shelters.
I hope caring communities ignore your calls.