Speech by the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman
Patricia de Lille on the occasion of the launch of the
‘Give Responsibly’ Campaign
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, goeiedag, molweni.
Where does the heart of the Caring City lie?
Does it lie in helping people?
Does it lie in ensuring that poor people have services and help?
Does it lie in providing rates rebates to those who need them?
Does it lie in providing extensive social and health services?
It has a home in all of these places.
But the heart of the Caring City lies in helping the most vulnerable
members of our society.
I believe it lies in helping street people.
Too often, those on the margins of our city are not considered a part of it.
They are considered a nuisance if anything or people who have failed all
the chances provided them.
Do not get me wrong.
I do not subscribe to the belief that street people carry absolutely no
blame for their situation.
But I don’t subscribe to a view that does not show compassion either.
Because the issue is a complicated one.
And it is an issue I have spent many years trying to find solutions
throughout my political career.
The problem of homelessness has many social factors.
There are the factors of internal migration between different regions of
the city, with homeless people coming from some communities and other
neighbourhoods having homeless people move into them.
There is also the problem of people falling into repeated patterns of
substance abuse, often posing a danger to themselves and sometimes to
others.
At the heart of it all are people who need to be helped, creating the need
for a focused policy approach to address the issue of street people.
This is a pledge I made when I campaigned to be mayor.
It is a pledge that I carried through as one of my first acts as mayor when
I granted an additional R2 million to address homelessness in the budget
last year.
That money has been put to good use in getting a processing centre to
help street people up and running.
This is on top of all the good work we already do in the City of Cape
Town.
This includes giving grants to shelters; adopting strategies and
partnerships with NGOs; providing rebates to shelters; and providing
social workers, probation officers and other community workers.
But we believe that we can do more.
That is why I am proud to launch the City’s ‘Give Responsibly’ campaign.
This campaign has a truly holistic strategy of addressing all stakeholders.
It involves individuals, community organisations, businesses and street
people themselves.
A communication drive, it seeks to go to the heart of the matter when
dealing with street people.
That is, many of the lifestyles sustained on the streets are enabled by
money and other resources given directly to street people.
These direct donations often come from a good place of charity and
human compassion.
But they do not address the social circumstances that give rise to the
plight of street people.
Indeed, these direct donations encourage this lifestyle to continue
indefinitely.
If our motivation is to help, to care and be compassionate, this
communication campaign seeks to channel our efforts.
It seeks to tell people that the place for donations are community and
other organisations that can establish networks of care and provide the
support needed to truly help street people.
And if this message is internalised by all, then street people themselves
will know that the place for care is not direct donations, but professional
networks that can truly help them.
I thank all Capetonians for making this a Caring City and including
everyone.
But I ask now that our energies be used in a more focused way so that
goodwill can translate into good lives for street people.