Pretoria - While tensions at the Caledonian Stadium continue to rise with the homeless fighting for food and methadone, things are more relaxed at the Pretoria West Rugby Club.
About 300 homeless people have been relocated to the rugby stadium on Transoranje and WK FM roads. They managed to escape from the Caledonian Stadium, which has been described by the 2100 homeless people temporarily housed there as “Corona City”.
In Pretoria West, the accommodation left smiles on the faces of many new arrivals. The tents were bigger, some people even played soccer soccer on the field, and social workers were on hand to attend to those in distress.
One of the homeless people who was relocated there said the stadium was much better than Caledonian. “ There Are no drug users here. We sleep peacefully at night without being worried that our few belongings would be stolen. There are no moans and groans at night from people who want a fix,” he said.
At the Caledonian Stadium drug users were still being offered methadone to lessen stomach cramps caused by cravings.
Picture: Sakhile Ndlazi/Pretoria News
A further 40 people, 11 of whom came from Caledonian, were relocated to a temporary shelter at the Lyttleton Town Hall. The 40 were the more they were lederly in the from Caledonian.
Meanwhile at the Caledonian, many said they were unhappy with how they were being treated by the City, from lack of health facilities, to lack of food and even lack of safety and security. There was even an instance where a fight broke out for food.
Picture: Sakhile Ndlazi/Pretoria News
City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said they were preparing more sites for relocation, including churches. “We’re gradually decanting homeless people from the Caledonian in order to remain with only 200-300 substance abusers who can be put on a programme and provide them with methadone to help them from their drug addiction.
"The goal is to use the Caledonian stadium as a reception area for the intake and screening of new arrivals of homeless people and then to take them to shelters where they will be accommodated in smaller numbers to comply with physical distancing in an attempt to prevent and combat the spread of the coronavirus,” he said.
Bokaba said they were on course to establishing smaller shelters