When Strandfontein ward councillor Elton Jansen was told his community would carry the burden of housing thousands of homeless people on the Strandfontein sports field, he was not happy.
Eventually the volunteers had to leave the tent as a near-riotous situation broke out, inflamed by the presence of the politicians and news cameras.When Strandfontein ward councillor Elton Jansen was told his community would carry the burden of housing thousands of homeless people on the local sports field, he was not happy.
“I was informed, and I said in my post [on Facebook on Tuesday] I was unhappy because I was not consulted. And I stick to that, because I was not consulted," said Jansen. At least three separate tents were erected to house homeless people who were grouped together according to their suburbs of origin.
“The city should be ashamed at its opportunistic abuse of the coronavirus pandemic to forcibly remove homeless people from city and suburban environs and dump them on the Strandfontein sports ground.” He claimed the situation arose because individuals were under the impression that they would be able to return to their areas after being screened.
“These street people are coming off drugs, they’re coming off alcohol, there’s a whole other dynamic to it. They get to a field, they’re hungry, there’s anxiety and clearly the camp was heading towards not being manageable because they’ve spent the whole day today not sending any more buses. We’ve been waiting for another bus and now we’ve just got news that the site is full and locked down and closed.
On Thursday, mayoral committee member for health and community services Zahid Badroodien, Smith and mayor Dan Plato led the media contingent through the site. Hundreds of homeless people stand in line during lunch time as volunteers hand out fruit juice to them in one of the camps for homeless people at the Strandfontein site.He said Strandfontein was chosen because it was the largest site with a wall and access to utilities such as water and electricity.
“I’m very grateful to the ward councillor for informing his community of what was a very difficult decision that we as a city had had to take and also difficult for the councillor to have to inform the community that this decision was taken at a facility that is very active where soccer and cricket is played,” he said.
While Badroodien waited for homeless “representatives” of three suburbs to come and speak to the media about their experiences, two women approached to say they were being held at the site against their will and complained about the conditions. Crying, Davis claimed that they were pepper sprayed by the law enforcement officers guarding the camp.
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