Just two days after 15 undocumented foreign nationals were arrested and more than 100 homeless people were removed and taken in for processing by police from the Albert Park area in Durban, which is known as a crime hotspot, many of them returned.
The raid was part of an integrated pre-festive season operation about two weeks ago, which included eThekwini district police, the office of the Premier, Correctional Services, metro police and the Department of Community Safety and Liaison.
Speaking to The Mercury yesterday, a 31-year-old homeless man named Sifiso Ngcobo, said two days after they were removed by police from the Albert Park area, they returned.
“It is painful, my parents are dead, I have no wife or children and there are so many people living in the family house, putting money together. I am running away from my problems at home,” he said.
Ngcobo said the places where the police want them to go are too far from the city and they do not have transport to travel back and forth.
Business owners and staff, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said they feared for the safety of their customers and themselves.
A hairdresser in the area said they had a huge problem with crime.
“Today a woman was coming into the salon and stopped to talk to a child and a ‘phara’ (homeless person) tried to steal a cell phone. The phone dropped and he ran away.”
One salon customer said four homeless men tried to rob her of her cell phone at knife point.
A cashier seated behind a large metal cage in a superette in the area said if they had not made friends with the homeless people by giving them juice among other stuff, they would also be targeted.
“We are now their friends but if someone goes there, they will be robbed of their phone. School children are also robbed and even if a police officer walks through there alone, he will be robbed,” he said.
The raid was part of a broader strategy spearheaded by KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli, who has launched a campaign targeting crime-ridden areas in Durban.
Earlier this week during a raid on spaza shops and other stores, police reportedly arrested more than 30 undocumented immigrants and confiscated illicit cigarettes.
Eric Jean Butoki Madel, acting chairperson of the Southern Africa Refugee Organisations Forum in South Africa and general secretary of Africa Refugee Social Co-operations, said they were aware of the “unconstitutional actions” planned by the Department of Home Affairs and other government agencies.
“The government has shut doors for people to access asylum in South Africa yet it doesn’t want to openly declare that South Africa can no longer receive asylum seekers,” he said.
Madel emphasised that individuals granted asylum-seeker permits and refugee status were being unjustly deprived of access to fundamental rights.
“For example PDP driving licences held by refugees are not being renewed. They cannot do any learners’ licence. All these are unconstitutional practices from the government,” he said.
Madel said some of the arrested foreign nationals had expired permits and were awaiting an extension from Home Affairs.
Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre, which actively assists the homeless, and former chair of the eThekwini Task Team on Homelessness during the Covid-19 pandemic, said the return of the homeless was predictable.
Perrier said a similar raid occurred a few years ago and the homeless returned to the same area.
“We know it’s a wasted operation, because we know from last time, and it’s obvious that if you don’t give people an alternative, they will go back to where they started. So a lot of money has been spent. Many people lost their IDs. A lot of people who are HIV positive lost their ARVs and TB patients lost their medication, and nothing has been achieved.
“The issue is you can’t help homeless people unless you involve them in the process. If you treat them as aliens, as outsiders, then you build no trust, you build no relationship,” he said.
Perrier said the key to the National Homeless Conversation that will be held in a few weeks in Durban, is that homeless people will be in the room.
“We will be listening to them and learning from them, because that’s how you work with homeless people.”
The Premier’s Office and the police did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.