DURBAN - The Denis Hurley Centre took to Facebook to express its disappointment with the eThekwini Municipality allegedly ordering the removal of Dalton shack dwellers on Wednesday.
The centre said the people of Dalton, who had so little, have seen their homes and their property destroyed under the orders of eThekwini, which claimed to be the ‘most caring city in Africa’.
“We have, for a number of years, been helping the homeless community of several hundred living in and around the Dalton Beer Hall. The area is disgustingly dirty and unhygienic with no system for rubbish collection (which builds up in big piles) and rainwater and sewage run-off lying in pools all around,” the centre said.
It said the previous municipal department (SDB) tried to make improvements, though with mixed results. Their attempts to 'clean up the area' nearly always meant that DSW and Metro Police went in and simply destroyed people's shacks.
“We were hopeful when we heard that a new municipal department (iTrump) was taking over responsibility since they have a reputation for sensitive and collaborative interventions. They announced 'Operation Good Hope' to address some of the problems in the area. At the planning meeting last week, we particularly asked if people's shacks would be destroyed and were told, in front of the Metro Police, that this was not the intention,” the centre said.
“Today (Wednesday), the Metro Police were there with hired hands from the UIP Co (whose reputation among the homeless in the CBD is far from clean). They started tearing down shacks and throwing people's property into the compressor - clothes, medicines, ID cards. All they did with the mountains of rubbish that were already lying around was send in a tractor yesterday (Tuesday) to push it to one side, presumably to make it easier to destroy the shacks.”
The centre said that no warning was given to residents.
What was worse was that the police constables they spoke to seemed to take pleasure in watching the destruction. Incidentally, contrary to the requirements of the law, most were not wearing visible name badges. The officer in charge, Captain Sicwala, said they were just carrying out orders, and we had no right to challenge them, the centre said.
She explained: “We were told to clean up the area, and that is what we are doing.”
The centre said she was accompanied by Captain Boucher from the K9 dog unit.
He explained that they were there ‘to protect the police because this is a dangerous area’.
“It was pointed out to him that our staff are there every day and do not need police protection. It was not the area that was dangerous but the situation created by the Metro Police. Interestingly, he needed reminding that his duty as a police officer is to protect all citizens (including the homeless), not just to protect the police,” the centre said.
“We were told by the police on duty that they were carrying out the express wishes of ward councillor Protas Mngonyama. Attempts this (Wednesday) afternoon to contact both him and iTrump have not yet produced any useful response, but we will update on Facebook when they do.”
Daily News