HOMELESS people took to the streetson Monday in protest against the way they are treated by law enforcement and Central City Improvement District (CCID) officers.
The group, headed by former CCID employee Dean Ramjoomia, marched from Keizersgracht near the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to the Civic Centre on Monday to hand over its list of demands to mayor Patricia de Lille.
Ramjoomia, who is in a dispute with the CCID over his dismissal, said he was opposed to what had been happening to homeless people.
Last week, the Cape Times reported that homeless people were being bundled into CCID vans and dumped outside the CBD. These people said they were often harassed by law enforcement officers, who were making their lives a misery.
Yesterday, they marched with placards reading: “Enough is enough”, “Everyone has the Right to Freedom of Movement”, while others read, “Stop rendering us undesirable”.
Ramjoomia said the group wanted the mayor to consider the role of the CCID and investigate its legal standing to participate in the displacement of people.
“All the clean-up operations must be stopped immediately. We call for an end to any participation of the CCID in any security operations of police and law enforcement. We demand that the CCID ensure their contracted security officers stop interfering with free movement of people in the CBD. They are constantly telling people to move, which is a violation of the free movement of people under section 2 of the constitution,” said Ramjoomia.
He said homeless people were being treated as if they were a bunch of undesirables
“This city is for the rich and wealthy. They treat us like we are nothing. But the people who have so little will put them to shame.”
He said the City would be given 10 days to respond to the group’s demands.
City Special Projects and Community Engagement manager Wilfred Schrevian Evan Solomons-Johannes accepted the demands on behalf of De Lille, saying she was unable to attend.
“This particular group said they wanted to hand over a petition to the executive mayor. They did not hand over the memorandum prior to today’s event. Notwithstanding, the City does have a reintegration unit in place. We have done an assessment with 7 000 people on the streets. A greater part of them (about 4 300) live on the streets and the rest live in shelters,” said Solomons-Johannes.
He said people must understand that the role of the government is to reintegrate people on the street back into the community and not to break up homes.
But Roxie Koert, 25, said while the City had winter programmes for street people, there were no programmes to help them for the rest of the year.
One of the marchers, Anton Markus, 62, said they may live on the street, but were also human.
“Many of the people living on the street are down on their luck. But along comes the law enforcement and they treat you like dirt. The biggest gripe we have is that they will take anything you own. They don’t care if it’s your personal documents, like your ID. If you try to get back your items afterwards, they are just lost,” said Markus.
He said he and other homeless people sleep in big groups at the Grand Parade to keep safe from criminals. CCID chief operating officer Tasso Evangelinos said the unit was not in a position to comment on allegations made as part of what he said was a campaign led by Ramjoomia.
Evangelinos said Ramjoomia was dismissed from the CCID in May after an independently arbitrated disciplinary process. The matter is now with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.