Commuters stressed… homeless seen as a nuisance

THE AMOUNT of stress the people of Cape Town must endure on a daily basis is not normal and not healthy at all. Children struggling to get into schools. Commuters not being able to make use of some train services.

Employers unable to deliver services or goods due to workers arriving late. Our dire water shortages. Violence against women and kids. The list goes on and on.

Traffic jams are another problem some have to face. But in spite of all this, we manage to get through every day. More chaos can be expected with the Sona this week. I hope parliamentarians bring their own water for this one!

There is a development on our streets and I just cannot understand it. Women with children coming into the city to beg. Sorry, the kids do the begging. Sometimes one sees the same kid but with another woman.

Are these children being hired out by the day to go begging? And the number of youngsters who should be at school, walking the streets of Cape Town.

We have lost many homeless people over the last few months. And it saddens me because they died due to the fact that they didn’t take their medication as prescribed by their doctors. There are many reasons for this, such as not being able to store it properly.

There are so many dedicated feeding schemes giving food to the homeless on a daily basis. So I don’t understand why people still scratch in dirt bins for food. But mind you, then again, councillor Shayne Ramsay from Sea Point said the homeless are eating like kings from the bins. Dear reader, I simply cannot get over this remark. It haunts me.

Nobody consults with the homeless on issues affecting us. Once again, the City invited tenders and, hopefully, the one NGO we don’t trust at all will not win it.

Because all efforts with our land in Culemborg will then have been a total waste of time. After so many years, they still don’t get it: “Nothing about us, without us.”

When an NGO turns into a convenience for the City to handle its dirty work, at a fee of course, then one creates a monopoly. Pass us on. We are seen as a nuisance at times.

The City worries more over the roughly 9% of the Cape Town population who use bicycles. Around R158 million was spent on bicycle lanes and walkways. The bicycle lanes are occupied by parked cars in places like Woodstock. A waste of millions.

Many walkways are hotspots for robberies and rape. Did the City take security into account?

It was in France and Russia that the poor people started revolutions and changed history forever.

There have been issues regarding shelters feeding people on the outside. They were told to stop. It seems to be a better idea to sell the “waste” to the pig farms…

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.