We are people; we are human beings

Sandile Andrew Mgengwana (37) said he used to live in the Western Cape township of Nyanga until he contracted tuberculosis and was chased away from his home to the streets in 2006.

Mnengwana also openly added that he is HIV positive, adding to his susceptibility to illness.

“I was lonely and lost, and I came to live here,” he said. It was in these moments of aloneness that Mnengwana resorted to smoking tik (crystal methamphetamine).

But becoming a father forced him to re-evaluate his drug abuse.

“I tell myself, ‘No, you must stop, because I’m big now’,” he said. He added that he tries to send money to his child, who will be 13 this year and lives in Nyanga, when he has it.

He said the way the police treat the unhoused in the area had worsened since the Parliament fire.

“Police chased us away from that side [of the street] to sleep this side,” he explained, even claiming that they had experienced instances of police brutality.

“What did we do? Why they chase us away? They don’t have the papers, they don’t have nothing, they just take us.”

Mnengwana said he did not believe Mafe was guilty of the crimes he was accused of. “That man didn’t burn Parliament because that man, he was like us.”

Speaking to the experiences of the rest of his community, Mnengwana felt that the unhoused were deprived of rights and left to fend for themselves.

He exclaimed, “We don’t have rights! “We stay in the street, but no one is standing up for us.”

He admitted to having broken into cars to steal from them in the past, even serving jail time, but said he did not want to go back to prison.

“I cannot say my mother or my father sent me there,” he said. “You must blame yourself; like me, I’m blaming myself.”

Mnengwana said he wished people would treat him and his community with kindness. “When you are rich, you look at us like we’re nothings. We are people; we are human beings.”

In terms of the future of his community, Mnengwana was not hopeful that the state would help them, citing corruption as a problem.

He noted that politicians only seemed interested in the plight of the unhoused during election periods, when they “make promises” to help.

One example he highlighted was the unsustainable solution of poor quality RDP housing in the Cape Flats area of Philippi.

“That is just a place like a dog house. You make it now, tomorrow it’s broken,” he claimed. “When it’s finished to vote, they don’t give a damn about people.”

Mnengwana solemnly concluded: “Please don’t do the same mistake what I did… Please, when you have school, hold on. When you have mother, hold on to that mother and father, because when they leave you, you’re not going to be right.”