Cape Town’s Mean Streets

It was a year into South Africa’s new democracy and the Rainbow Nation was on a high, having pulled back from the brink of civil war.

The 1994 elections that many predicted would end in bloodshed had taken place peacefully, ushering in a future where everyone was equal in the eyes of the law.

But nothing changed for the homeless people living on the streets of Cape Town who, just a year after the watershed elections, found themselves under sustained attack by the authorities.

Leading the assault were the SAPS and the city’s traffic police, who routinely harassed the homeless, confiscating blankets and other meagre possessions, and dousing them with cold water as they huddled in doorways and nooks and crannies to shelter from the bitter winter weather.

Civil society came together to fight for the rights of the homeless and The Big Issue – a magazine sold by unemployed and homeless people to help them earn an honest living – was launched.

Early editions are filled with stories about the assault on the homeless, yet mainstream newspapers seldom reported on the issue and the attacks on street people were largely ignored.

Homeless men and women told how they were abducted from the streets of Cape Town by traffic police and driven 50 or more kilometres out of the city and dumped on the side of the road, while others related how they were taken up the mountain and thrown into dams to scare them into leaving the city. Yet others told how they had been arrested for no reason and locked in police cells, where they were routinely beaten by police.

And so, as a former editor of the magazine and a member of its board for almost two decades, the renewed assault on the “homeless” in Cape Town, 23 years later, has given me a strong sense of déjà vu.

This time around, in 2019, it’s the city’s law enforcement unit leading the charge, using bylaw infringements to issue fines of up to R1,500 to homeless people who have no prospect of ever paying.

The City of Cape Town has weaponised the 2007 Streets, Public Places and the Prevention of Noise Nuisances and the 2009 Integrated Waste Management bylaws to drive off the homeless.

Those who do not pay up will be arrested and taken before a court where they face being jailed if they cannot pay the fines. Another consequence is that people could end up with criminal records – effectively criminalising poverty.

The City of Cape Town has decided to get tough after the failure of a “social services” approach to getting the homeless off the streets, according to JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for safety and security.

He says the mayor of Cape Town told him he was “getting hundreds of complaints” and “asked me why are you not doing your job”. Smith says he has also come under pressure from fellow councillors and residents across the city – “not just the rich white areas” – to act against those living on the streets.

The mayor promised more money for social development but had also instructed him to “match that in reasonable proportion…to ramp up enforcement. Previously we had reduced enforcement to 10% of the equation and 90% development, but now it’s happening in a bit more balance. I agree with him that we were starting to lose the plot,” says Smith.

“We offer people solutions to get off the street and we must also expect people who are on the street to comply with basic bylaw issues. And where we have offered people solutions, social options that they steadfastly decline, the answer cannot be to do nothing.”

Cape Town’s mayco member for community services and health Zahid Badroodien, says the issue of street people “is a societal thing … we need to fix the broken economic system.”

But he says, fining homeless people “should not be a first option. The City should never issue fines to a street person unless they have been offered the multitude of options available through our Street Peoples’ Unit. It is also important to recognise that street people do not find themselves on the street for no reason. They are either escaping domestic violence, emotional trauma or they are looking for economic opportunities and we need to be sensitive to the facts.”


Badroodien, who is hosting a Street Peoples' Summit on World Homeless day on October 10, said in a recent interview: “The summit is open to everyone and we want to engage with homeless people as well as different NGOs to try and find solutions to problems that face the city’s street people. There is a lot of value in talking to these homeless people and letting them speak for themselves rather than always going through different forums.”

Recently released research conducted by the City of Cape Town in November 2018 counted 3,999 homeless people living on the streets, a decrease of 16% since the previous count in 2015. Of these, 2,084 were making use of shelters. The Haven, which has 15 shelters in Western Cape, with the majority in Cape Town, can accommodate 1,086 people, while the city’s recently opened Safe Space can take in 230. The remaining shelters can accommodate a few hundred more between them, meaning there is no place for hundreds of the city’s homeless. Accommodation at shelters in Cape Town is also divided along gender lines, so families and couples would rather sleep on the streets than be separated.

So far this year, 70 homeless people who failed to pay fines have been arrested and will appear in court, says Smith, while more than R96,000 in fines, mostly levied against homeless people, were issued in a single night, according to police.

“We have anticipated this consequence. We will see what the court does with these cases. I am willing to bet that the court is going to do nothing,” says Smith.

“Then I can turn around and I can say to the public that the criminal justice system is unwilling or unable to attend to these matters and that I have tried the enforcement avenue and that it does not get results.

“So, either let’s accept that and put the focus squarely on social development and understand that enforcement can have a very minimal, negligible impact. Or vent your anger at the criminal justice system controllers, which is not me; engage national government, speak to the chief magistrates, speak to the NPA … because the city’s law enforcement has exhausted its ability to do something to its natural conclusion.”

Street people tell a story of ongoing harassment by the authorities and Neighbourhood Watch patrols. Many claim the city’s law enforcement officials have confiscated – many say “stolen” – personal goods, including clothes, blankets and toiletries.

Lawyer Lucien Lewin, who is acting for Carin Geldebloem and six other homeless people, has launched an urgent interdict in the Cape High Court to force the city to stop fining street people and confiscating their possessions. Lewin says he is also planning a separate lawsuit to test the constitutionality of the two bylaws being used against homeless people.

In her affidavit, Geldebloem says she ended up on the streets after her husband died and she could no longer afford the rent for her home. She makes and sells beaded items to earn a living and pays R20 to security guards to sleep in a public toilet when she can afford it.

But, she says, she has been hounded by officials who have confiscated her beads and other possessions. She says she was due to appear in court recently after being fined but failed to do so because she had gone to hospital after falling and breaking her wrist.

“The bylaws effectively criminalise living on the streets. We simply do not have the ability to pay the fines imposed on us and we face imprisonment if we don’t pay.”

Kashiefah Sedicello, 34, who lives in a tiny plastic shelter alongside a park in Gardens tells how she saved up R300 to buy a new pair of boots, only to have them confiscated after she had worn them only once. The officials also confiscated a raincoat and toiletries given to her by Souper Troopers, a non-profit organisation working with Cape Town’s homeless.

Her story is echoed by other homeless people, who tell of personal items, including blankets, clothes and toiletries, confiscated by officers without any receipts issued.

Souper Troupers board member Caryn Gutkin said the group had received many reports of city officials “stealing” raincoats, blankets, scarves, socks, beanies and toiletries that were donated during a Winter Warmth programme.

“What kind of people would steal from the city’s most vulnerable?”

But Smith says law enforcement officers are only allowed to remove items directly related to the transgression of an offence, like a vehicle used for illegal dumping.

“If the item can be identified as a personal and immediate effect, something that you can pick up and take away with you, then you need to be given the opportunity to remove the items. But whatever you leave behind we will dump or, when in doubt, put in a plastic bag and tag it.”

But the city halted “bagging and tagging” in February after the roof of the storehouse where confiscated goods are held “sprung a leak and stuff got wet … so they should not be removing anything vaguely like a personal effect”, he says.

Smith said he would investigate the allegations and action would be taken against officers found to have illegally confiscated personal items. “If we catch them doing anything contrary to the policy the penalty can include dismissal. I accept that not all law enforcement are angels, and some will do wrong, and where we catch them I am happy to ensure that we will take action.”

Chris Nissen, commissioner of the Western Cape Human Rights Commission, said the organisation was receiving complaints “on a daily basis” about the treatment of homeless people. “We have received between 200 and 300 complaints and we are currently looking at the constitutionality of the bylaws being used to see what we can do about it.

Among these complaints is one from Rudy Oosterwyk, who witnessed six security guards assaulting an elderly homeless man.

“One of these days a street dweller will be killed by the city’s hands and I am worried about that,” he says. “We overcame apartheid with little resources, we should be able to make life worth living under this democracy for all South Africans.”

But, for now, the constitutional rights of street people to be treated equally in the eyes of the law remains a distant dream. DM