SOUTH AFRICA’S urban homeless are being rounded up and moved to the outskirts of cities hosting next month’s Fifa World Cup as part of a campaign to clean up the nation’s image before the arrival of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors.
With just over three weeks to go to Africa’s first World Cup, many of the homeless street children and adults who normally roam the busy inner city areas of Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town are now conspicuous by their absence.
In Johannesburg, where many foreign football fans will stay due to the city’s close proximity to a number of tournament venues, police have confirmed they have been arresting prostitutes and beggars in a bid to have the city ready for the month-long showcase event.
“Their presence violates the city bylaws and we arrest them. In many cases those in need, like women with children and disabled people, are referred to places of safety, where they can access welfare services,” said Edna Mamonyane, spokeswoman for the Johannesburg Metro Police this week.
“This is a normal police exercise, but we have intensified our efforts because of the World Cup. We have had a really tough job with the prostitutes. Every day they are warned or arrested.”
In Durban, the redeveloped beachfront area, which will be used as a fan park, has been emptied of loiterers and illegal vendors, according to local reports.
Welfare groups in the port city also have said more than 400 children who usually live in inner city area have been moved to a facility on Durban’s outskirts.
In Cape Town, city officials have added an additional dimension to their efforts to ensure visitors are not faced with the stark reality of South Africa’s urban poor.
While hundreds of homeless people have been moved to a settlement called Blikkiesdorp, about 20km outside of the city, officials have also launched their annual Winter Readiness Plan for street dwellers early in a bid to spruce up vagrants who remain in urban areas during the event.
As part of the programme the city has given outreach workers 1,000 disposable razors, 6,000 bars of soap, 6,000 toothbrushes, 4.000 tubes of toothpaste and 1,000 blankets to hand out to homeless people so they can make sure they are clean and well-groomed.
Rights groups have slammed the actions of city officials who came up with the idea of removing the poor, calling it a breach of their human rights.
“It’s a violation of our Bill of rights . . . They’re not allowed to do it. The legacy that it’s going to leave behind is that human rights were violated in the process of trying to put on a world event,” Warren Whitfield, chief of Addiction Action Campaign, an advocacy group, told reporters.
“The problem is vast. People are being removed from the streets and put into shelters and concentration camps,” said Mr Whitfield.