22 September 2021 | Volume 80 | Edition 6
We are humans, we are just doing our best too A houseless community is furious over police conduct during enforced eviction in the face of the City of Cape Town’s new Unlawful Occupation By-law. By Ernst Rossmeisl
Calitz
&
Daniel
Staff Writer & News Editor
O
n 13 September 2021, a houseless tented community came into conflict with authorities once again as they faced eviction and confiscation of their belongings. For houseless residents like Ryan and S haro n , p ol ic e ev ic tio n s have become almost routine. VARSITY Newspaper arrived on the scene to report. O n Jul y 3 1 s t p ub l i c comments on the City of Cape Town’s new Unlawful Occupation Bylaw closed (another iteration within a long history of policies directed by federal law). It was passed by the Mayoral Committee on September 8th and by the following day police had begun a city-wide clean up campaign. On September 13th, it was the turn of a small, tented camp community along Main Road Constantia. “You see the tents across the road over there?” asks Ryan, taking a break from tending to what he calls his garden to speak to VARSITY, “normally when the police come it’s like a competition – we see who the unlucky ones will be, you know? Forced to move. But not today, today we stood together and supported one another like a community.” The atmosphere was still rife with anger and frustration, and many of the houseless were furious at the police’s conduct. “It’s not
Source: Ernst Calitz / VARSITY Newspaper
even that they always have to try to move us,” says Ryan, “Some of them have a heart and most of them are just trying to do their job – but some of them? They treat us like animals. They swear, they shout, and they threaten us. They are supposed to keep the community safe, to provide a service... don’t we deserve to be served and protected too? The City of Cape Town insists that the process of evictions require houseless residents to be offered “alternative, viable” shelter elsewhere, however houseless residents remain unconvinced. Ryan told VARISTY, “Ja sure, we’re houseless... that doesn’t mean we are homeless! Look how nice my garden is here, do you like it? We don’t cause harm, we’re just doing our best.” Other community members claim that the police never offered them an alternative shelter, but rather just started confiscating their belongings and destroying their tents. Sharon, a member of the community, sat on a small brick wall lamenting: “We are very clean, my dog doesn’t have fleas, nor do we, but the shelters do – they’re too filthy” when asked about the possibility of moving to a shelter if offered.
Ryan, a senior member of the community, added on how the police confiscated his fourman K-Way tent. “I was cold last night, I’ll tell you that!” he shivers, “never mind they took the food we had saved for today – just kicked it and dumped it on the ground.” However, Ryan and Sharon still seem to be the lucky ones, at least this time around. Sharon told VARSITY that many male officers are especially aggressive towards the women in the group, stating that “they get aggressive when it comes to the women, he [specific officer] has problems with them.” Ryan added, “How can they speak about this GBV - this gender-based whatsit - when it’s the same service providers who are doing it to us?” Another woman in the group added how the police allegedly tore her clothing during the confrontation. Multiple houseless residents claim to have witnessed an alleged assault committed by law enforcement against one of the female members of the group. Witnesses claim that her arrest on the grounds of obstruction were a result of
trying to defend herself from being hit. During her arrest, one of the male police officers was alleged to have been seen groping and touching her inappropriately. The chaos mounted once the woman began to experience an asthma attack. Impounded in the back of a police vehicle, she was allegedly denied access to her asthma pump — members of the community had to force the pump into the back of the police van. When asked for comment by VARSITY News, officers at the scene declined to comment. However, later in the evening the authorities confirmed that the woman had received her inhaler at an unspecified point later in the day. No indication has been provided regarding the Covid-19 protocols followed with respect to the inhaler, nor the rest of the eviction. Despite being asked for further comment, Diep Rivier Police Station’s station master did not respond to VARSITY at the time of this article being written. The authorities have, allegedly, failed to provide a bin number or any instruction to the community on how they should go about reclaiming their possessions.