City of Cape Town homeless site under fire for R43 million tent hire
This isn’t the first time the City of Cape Town has been criticised for its homeless campsite in Strandfontein. This time, the City has been hit hard regarding its expenditure on the “inhumane” and “degrading” site. The biggest expense, which has now caught the attention of the Good Party, was rented tents which equated to more than R43 million.
Member of the Western Cape Legislature and Secretary-General of the Good Party Brett Herron released a damning statement, saying that the site was never developed to help the homeless but instead, was only used to fulfil Mayor of Cape Town Dan Plato and MMC JP Smith’s ideological dream of removing the homeless from the city centre.
CITY OF CAPE TOWN ALLEGEDLY FORKS OUT MILLIONS ON TENTS
Answers to questions posed in the provincial legislature to Western Cape MEC for Local Government Anton Bredell have revealed that millions of rands were spent on the site. The controversial facility operated from the beginning of April until mid-May 2020 — a period of about six weeks.
According to Herron, it was roundly condemned by organisations including the globally respected Medicins Sans Frontieres as “inhumane” and “degrading”.
According to Bredell, this is what has been spent on the homeless site;
- The total cost of the operation amounted to at least R53 million;
- That’s approximately R26 500 per person or a nightly rate of R520 per person to sleep in a marquee;
- 90% of the cost, or R48.4m, was incurred by the City’s Safety and Security Directorate;
- It cost R43.8m to hire the marquees, and R3.5 million was spent on security;
- Transport came in at R450 000, or about R225 per person per bus ride; and
- Mattresses cost an additional R376 000, water and sewage another R238 000 and “decontamination” R18 000.
“I will be asking follow-up questions to prise more information from the MEC, and will refer the matter to the Office of the Auditor-General for investigation,” said Herron.
‘BEGGING ME TO HELP THEM LEAVE’
Herron explained that he had personally been to the Strandfontein site and it did not depict that of a shelter.
“At least one woman was raped in those tents, and another allegedly gang-raped. That the Strandfontein camp was ill-conceived was obvious from day one. I visited the camp on the day it was established and was almost besieged by homeless people begging me to help them leave,” he said.
Herron, stating what the City of Cape Town could have done to provide better shelter and save money, said guest houses or hotels would have done the job. He said it would have supported the local hospitality industry while providing safer accommodation. He also said using Uber would have halved the transport bill while supporting local drivers.
“The internment camp absorbed 90% of Cape Town’s spending on the homeless during the first phase of the State of Disaster. The city also spent R4.3m funding shelters,” he said.
“I do not believe the camp was set up out of concern for homeless people. Instead, it was a vehicle for Mayor of Cape Town Dan Plato and MMC JP Smith to opportunistically implement their ideological dream to remove poor people from the inner city to the fringes of the Metro, where they are out of sight,” he added.
CITY OF CAPE TOWN ACCUSED OF FUNNELLING MONEY
Herron said that from the figures Bredell “was forced to reveal,” it appears the Strandfontein camp may have also served the purpose of funnelling money to so-called Covidpreneurs.
“Bredell has yet to disclose who the tents were procured from or what process was used to select contractors, but the R43 million rental price tag appears grossly inflated,” he said.
Herron said that for the amount of R43.8 million, the City of Cape Town could have bought and renovated a 13 000m2 warehouse to create additional permanent shelter spaces.
In the meantime, Herron will request the Auditor-General to investigate whether the costs of the camp represented fair value for ratepayers and whether lawful contracting processes were followed.
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