Innocent homeless in Durban CBD 'caught up in visible policing fervour'

What was a contained problem 'has now just become a dispersed problem'

Questions have been raised about a blitz in the Durban CBD in which police arrested 15 undocumented foreigners and removed 100 homeless people from the streets. 

Provincial police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said a “safer festive season” operation on Monday was an integrated initiative between provincial and local government which targeted the Albert Park area, which had become a hotspot for crimes such as theft out of cars, smash and grabs and robberies.

However, Monday's raid raised concern for the Denis Hurley Centre which said that while police dispersed the homeless with the “praiseworthy intention of identifying and addressing criminal elements within the community”, they had created a new problem.

Dr Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre which helps homeless people and convener of the National Homeless Network, said: “When people see some homeless people sleeping rough or openly trading drugs or stealing to feed their addictions, there is a cry of ‘something must be done’. But the danger is that simply doing something without a thought for the consequences does not improve the situation for anyone.

“Monday’s intervention resulted, we are told, in 15 undocumented foreign nationals and 100 homeless people being taken in for processing. We have not heard how many of those have been charged or detained.

“But several hundred others have been affected by the raid on Monday and previous raids. The actions of the police mean that these groups are scattered — they do not disappear, they just move to another place. So when the police intervened with the group near the railway tracks, some scattered to Glenwood, others moved to the Esplanade traffic island.”

He said a similar pattern occurred after a police raid about three years ago.

“Meantime, those who are scattered go to other areas and increase crime, and the fear of crime, in those places, as has been seen by the reaction of Glenwood and Umbilo residents. 

“What was a contained problem has now just become a dispersed problem. The problem has not gone away and in fact has become worse. One visible problem might have been addressed but the underlying problems are still there: the same people are still sleeping rough but somewhere else; the same people are still trading drugs but somewhere else; the same people are still stealing but somewhere else.”  

Perrier said innocent homeless people “caught up in the fervour of visible policing” were left without their IDs or their ARVs and TB medication, which put themselves and members of the public at risk.

“It is unfortunate that local government persists in thinking that there are quick fixes to deep social problems. There are strategies that do work — providing well-run safe sleeping spaces, giving access to managed medical substitutes for drugs, tackling the drug dealers and not just the buyers — but these take time and patience, a vision and a co-ordinated strategy.

“They also require engaging with homeless people as people and not treating them as litter to be cleared off the streets. eThekwini demonstrated its willingness to do this during Covid but it has now returned to quick, expensive and ineffective interventions that grab headlines but achieve limited lasting results.”

Police ignored queries about the status of the 100 people taken in during the operation.

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