Vagrants: muni must take the lead

Knysna Ratepayers Association committee:

The association supports residents affected by vagrants, as reported in last week’s article “Vagrants Drive Residents Crazy” in Knysna-Plett Herald. We have also been working during this past year to convince the municipality that this problem has to be addressed – so far without success.

The municipality’s response to the article is vague and trite, to say the least, without any action(s) aimed at making clear progress towards resolving the situation. There is no point in just, almost timidly, asking other agencies to assist – it is the municipality’s responsibility to lead a task group comprising all relevant and impacted parties with the goal of developing and implementing a clear strategy to deal with the issue of vagrants.

Starting point

The majority of vagrants have family members living in Knysna and in many cases there is a family home. So why can’t the municipality, in conjunction with the Department of Social Development, start by finding out why these people prefer to be homeless and beg for a living rather than stay in the family home?

The municipality also says that “law enforcement has commenced with a programme to demolish and clean hot spots where street people tend to gather or overnight”. What the municipality fails to mention is that the vagrants are back the next day, and soon rebuild the illegal structures they have erected. Or they simply move to another place and set up their structures there. The current approach is a waste of manpower and resources.

Patrols ineffective

The municipality claims “these areas are patrolled at night as well as early morning”. What it fails to mention is that the patrols are conducted by private security companies and SAPS, not by municipal law enforcement. In any event, vehicle patrols are known to be largely ineffective in preventing crime, and are certainly not effective in preventing the other problems like noise, litter, and insalubrious conditions. Certainly not the attributes one would attach to a town vying with other towns on the Garden Route for the tourist rand.

The municipality says “these problems are not unique to Knysna”. What it fails to mention is that other Garden Route towns, like Plett, or coastal towns like Hermanus, do not begin to have Knysna’s vagrancy problem. Why? What are they doing that we should be doing? Why aren’t they overrun with vagrants, like Knysna is?

Passing the buck

The municipality opines, “It requires more than a single solution when all factors such as long-term unemployment and other socioeconomic challenges are considered. Government relies on civil society and the business sector to assist in the redress of this problem.” Translation: “It’s not my job.” Here, the municipality is simply passing the buck. Knysna municipality has primary statutory responsibility to address this problem – and it isn’t doing it.

The municipality “also advised residents to report any incidents to Law Enforcement at 044 302 6551”. That’s the phone number of the fire department, not Law Enforcement, 95% of whom are safely tucked into their beds at night. And the fire department has a number to call a single stand-by law enforcement officer with one vehicle to cover the evening and night hours from 18:00 onwards, and that officer has to cover an area from Sedgefield through to Brackenhill and Brenton-on-Sea to Rheenendal. So by and large, you’re on your own.

Muni does have power

The municipality also stated that “trucks parking on Main Road is regulated by national legislation as it is a national road”. Really? Knysna municipality has no power to regulate parking on Main Road, Knysna? What nonsense! Of course, it does. Who erects/takes down road signs such as “No Hitch Hiking”, “No Trading”, “Coach Parking”, etc? The main excuse given by the traffic department is that the drivers aren’t in their parked vehicles and so they cannot issue a fine, and if they contact the vehicle owner, they show little interest in Knysna’s problems.

Too few patrolling officers

Finally, the municipality claims, “With regard to streets under our control, these form part of the daily patrols by law enforcement.” Why do we so rarely see them patrolling there? Very clearly there is an insufficient number of them.

In the CBD, why not have them patrol on bicycles? What powers do they have with regard to vagrants, and how are they exercising them? Whatever they may be doing, it’s clearly not working.

The sad fact is that vagrancy is a political hot potato that neither council nor the administration is willing to address. Given council and the administration’s current composition and priorities, it looks like this problem is only going to get worse.