Cape Town - Street-dwellers in Cape Town’s city centre have noticed the influx of newcomers. They say money is the main reason they aren’t living in shelters, which charge around R10 a night.
It’s Amanda Zondi’s first winter on the streets. She left her children in Durban nine months ago to look for work. When she arrived, she stayed in a shelter for three weeks, but ran out of money and had to leave.
“In a shelter it’s nice because you sleep under a roof,” she said. Now, when it rains, she takes cover under a tree in the Company’s Garden. “When it’s raining it’s the hardest. You don’t have a place where you can hide. You are wet every day.”
The faded tattoos on either side of Mike Boikolate’s nose are a mark of his old life: he used to be a member of the 26 gang, but now says he is tired of crime. Since 1998, he has slept on a bench in the Company’s Garden. He’d like to stay in a shelter, but said people drink and shout and don’t obey the shelter rules. “Some people are crazy there.”
Instead, when it rains, he sleeps with Zondi under a tree. “My blankets are wet. Then people come in the morning and kick us out.”
Ivan Hendricks used to share a small shelter with a friend in the Bo Kaap, but another group of homeless people stole his plastic sheeting to rebuild their shelter, which burnt down due to a spark from a tik pipe.
“Whenever there is rain, we jump up and go seek somewhere else,” he said. “We grab a wet blanket, we look for some dry cardboard, and we ramble on.”
The city centre is the best place to find shelter in winter, according to Trevor Parsons, who has been living on the streets for 28 years. He sleeps with a group on Buitengracht Street, along with Tino Skippers, who has been on the streets since he was four.
“I’m not saying we who are living in the street are perfect,” said Skippers. “There are guys who break into cars and rob houses - but they do it to survive.”
Parsons and Skippers both said the Central City Improvement District (CCID) had brought only trouble for street people.
“They even abuse the children,” Skippers said. “They kick you when you are sleeping and take your blankets away.”
They also said the CCID told them they’d be arrested for “PK” - a term used to refer to people not obeying police orders, usually street people told to move out of the area.
The CCID was not available for comment.
Cadet News Agency
Cape Argus