Vagrants cry foul at rights violation

ABOUT 10 homeless people and supporters protested at the Thibault Square offices of the Central City Improvement District CCID, accusing it of human rights violations.

The homeless people said that the CCID deploys security guards to take away their clothing, packages with medication, and then throw away everything they have. Some complained that they had lost their medication notably for tuberculosis and ARVs.

One of the protesters, Dean Ramjoomia from Mitchells Plain, said he worked for CCID for 10 years before he decided to leave in May 2016. He felt that he had to join the march in order to get the attention of CCID .

One of the homeless people, Fritz Pillay, said that he has been homeless for over two years, living at the night shelter near the CBD.

“People mistreat us on the streets because they think we don’t have anywhere to go. Because of circumstances at home we go and search for work, nothing works out but we survive,” said Pillay.

Tasso Evangelinos, CCID chief executive, said, “The protester, along with a number of the other protesters, is in fact one of the people that our Social Development team helps. He was however not able to give specific details about when and where the goods had been taken.

“Whenever we receive reports of this nature, we take them very seriously as our own fieldworkers spend many, my hours assisting the homeless to access medicines and ID books and our public safety officers in turn are very specifically asked not to remove these when they are involved in operations at the request of City Law Enforcement.

“However, without specific details about incidents, including dates, locations and the officers involved (all our officers have numbers clearly visible on their bibs), it is very difficult to pursue these investigations,” added Evangelinos.