Cape Town - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has made scathing findings of conditions at the Strandfontein Sports complex where thousands of homeless people are housed during the Covid-19 lockdown. The SAHRC has recommended that the site be closed down.
Commissioner Chris Nissen said: “We received a report independently produced by NGOs we were working with. The assessment of the site and the report recommended that the site be decommissioned. We’re gathering all the information of the report and will be meeting with the City.”
The team recommended that immediate improvements take place at the site; provision be made to ensure the daily presence of medical personnel to assess occupants in each tent and manage referrals to the on-site health services; safety and security measures be implemented, especially for women and transgenders; and a phased closure of the site as a Covid-19 shelter, with a stop to any further admissions.
It also recommended that a multi-sectoral task team led by the City be urgently established, including representatives from the street people now staying at Strandfontein, civil society organisations, the local Strandfontein community and representatives from civil society.
“One of our biggest concerns is safety and security, along with health services. Our main issue is that they have no hourly medical services on standby and no proper assessment being done on the health and well-
being of the homeless staying there,”
Nissen said. He said he had been pressing authorities to say what would happen after lockdown ends.
“Our question remains whether they have an exit plan and if they do, they must implement that exit plan now. Whether you like it or not, as a government institution your priority must remain providing services to the most vulnerable,”
Nissen said.
In the same week allegations surfaced of homeless people being forced to stay at the site, and a 36-year-old man was arrested in connection with the rape of an 18-year-old woman.
Mayor Dan Plato has dismissed the SAHRC report.
“Despite mistakes at the site, there’s no need for it to be closed. I’m not convinced by the commission’s report and the site will not close. What boggles me is that this seems to be the HRC’s new issue and I question it heavily, because they first run to the media and not to us,” he said.
Plato was briefed on the feedback provided by the Department of Defence following the oversight visit by a delegation to the Strandfontein temporary shelter on April 18. “The feedback from the department was extremely positive and now we have people trying to discredit us,” he said.
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