Activist Carlos Mesquita has criticised the City of Cape Town’s plans to carry out eviction notices to homeless people.
The City was granted a court order to serve these evictions to those who’re illegally occupying various intersections in the CBD.
The municipality says it has been making offers including shelters, and special programmes to the group, but those have been rejected.
“In Cape Town, we have responded to the national and global challenge of homelessness by expanding our Care Interventions to help people off the streets, with R77 million for Safe Spaces and social programmes this financial year, as the only metro dedicating a social development budget to this important issue”. said mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis
Mesquita says homelessness is a more complex issue than simply spending money on shelters.
He says the City must stop trying to take shortcuts on the matter.
” The fact that they spent R15 million Rand in 2020 to hire tents because there were not enough spaces at the shelters to accomodate 2 000 people. How are they going to going to accomodate 15 000 people on the streets, there’s no way you can do it”.
Meanwhile, Premier Alan Winde is appealing to homeless people to accept support services offered by the City of Cape Town.
“We are a caring government, but we also need to consider everyone’s rights and responsibilities. We appreciate that the City has made multiple offers of assistance and that approaching the courts for assistance is the last resort. We note that eviction notices will now be served, and we hope that these notices encourage homeless residents who have thus far refused assistance, to take up these genuine offers of help”.
