| City hosts meeting about draft neighbourhood plan for District Six | The City invites residents, stakeholders, and interested parties to a meeting where attendees will have the opportunity to comment on the draft LSDF | <p>Last year the City, together with residents and interested parties, embarked on a journey to refine the overall spatial vision for District Six. The collaboration resulted in a draft neighbourhood plan or Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF) that has been available for public comment since 1 September 2021. </p><p>The City invites residents, stakeholders, and interested parties to a meeting where attendees will have the opportunity to comment on the draft LSDF, and to ask questions. Officials from the City’s Urban Planning and Design Department will also provide feedback on the progress with the draft LSDF.</p><p>The meeting will be hosted in-person, as well as online. The details are as follows:</p><ul><li><div style="text-align:left;">Wednesday, 27 October 2021</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">From 10:30 to 13:00</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">At the Subcouncil 16 Chambers in Wale Street</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">The link to the virtual meeting: <a href="https://meet.capetown.gov.za/themba.masemula/25VSGD5G" target="_blank">https://meet.capetown.gov.za/themba.masemula/25VSGD5G</a> </div></li></ul><p>‘The City is not involved with the restitution process, but we are responsible for creating an overall spatial vision for District Six in collaboration with the District Six community, and other residents. The purpose of this spatial plan is to re-establish this once vibrant neighbourhood, to create a sense of belonging, and to establish a multicultural community. I request all residents to please participate and to comment on the draft LSDF for District Six,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Marian Nieuwoudt.</p><p>The City is also collaborating with nominated representatives from the District Six community and stakeholders in finalising a public realm study, which will assist the City in identifying the public open spaces in District Six. </p><p>The public realm is the spaces between buildings such as streets, squares, green spaces, and pedestrian areas that are freely accessible to people.</p><p>‘To date, the nominated Caretakers have participated in two very productive face-to-face public realm improvement co-design workshops for District Six. The representatives are from various groups, communities, interested and affected parties, and stakeholders. The purpose of the co-design workshops is to develop a framework for proposed public spaces, priorities for these and design guidelines – the look and feel and uses – of the public realm of District Six. We are really excited about this collaboration and still have four more co-design workshops left,’ said Alderman Nieuwoudt.</p><p>The Public Realm Study will inform the draft LSDF for District Six that is available for public participation and comment until 31 October 2021. </p><p>The draft LSDF is available on the City’s website at <a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay" target="_blank">www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay</a>.</p><p>The LSDF and related Public Realm Study are aspects that the City can implement. They are separate from, but will enhance the housing project of the National Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development that is currently under way as part of the restitution process.</p><p><br><strong>End</strong></p> | 2021-10-17T22:00:00Z | | | | | | | 1 | | | |
| The offer of shelter promotes dignity and well-being for the ‘homeless’, and sustainable solutions for public places | The City has filed its answering affidavit with the Western Cape High Court disputing that its by-laws infringe on constitutional rights | <p></p><p>The City has filed its answering affidavit with the Western Cape High Court disputing that its by-laws infringe on constitutional rights.</p><p>The Streets By-law, which was recently updated, states that authorised City officials must offer shelter and social assistance before enforcing the law against sleeping in public places. </p><p>While the By-law prohibits certain conduct, its enforcement measures are used as a means of last resort as it relates to sleeping or camping in public places. This is because reintegration, rehabilitation, and the offer of shelter are the key pillars of the City’s response to assisting people off the streets sustainably.</p><p>Humane legal mechanisms to shorten a person’s stay on the streets are vital to dignity, health, and well-being. Living on unsafe streets can have a grave impact, including illness, disease, higher death rates, personal safety risks, substance abuse without rehabilitation, and erratic medical treatment.</p><p>Cape Town generally prohibits the same conduct in public places as other municipalities, except the City’s by-laws uniquely enshrine the offer of shelter in law, making this a requirement before enforcement takes place. </p><p>Only once all offers of shelter and sustainable solutions are refused, does sleeping or camping overnight in a public place become an offence. This is a necessary deterrent for the sustainable management of public places. </p><p>The City’s by-laws only criminalise conduct, not human beings. There can be no reasonable expectation, nor a clear right, for anyone to live unlawfully and permanently in tents in public spaces, and to reserve it for their exclusive use while refusing all offers of social assistance and shelter.</p><p>The City received close to 30 000 complaints for the period 2019 to 2021 related to people living on the street. </p><p>Common themes include aggressive and intimidating behavior or begging, erecting of structures, open fires, public nudity or indecency, drug use, unhygienic conditions, and in the case of businesses, loss of customers.</p><p style="text-align:left;">There are serious consequences to not managing the impact of people living on the streets, including:</p><p style="text-align:left;">- Public amenities for the benefit of all will become overtaken for the exclusive use of a few</p><p style="text-align:left;">- Parks and public open spaces will become overrun by makeshift structures and no longer be available for public use</p><p style="text-align:left;">- Unchecked public consumption of drugs and alcohol, violent crime and petty crimes, intimidation, verbal abuse of residents using public amenities, littering, and unsanitary conditions</p><p style="text-align:left;">- Flight of business initiatives </p><p style="text-align:left;">- Loss in tourism and reduction in visitors to key tourist sites </p><p style="text-align:left;">- Exponential loss of revenue for the City</p><p>‘The City has a constitutional obligation to make sure that our public open spaces remain sustainable, and that while we are offering assistance to help people off the streets, our by-laws are being applied equally to all residents at the same time. Uniquely in Cape Town, it is law that enforcement of the prohibition on sleeping in public spaces is a last resort once all offers of social assistance are refused.</p><p>‘Cape Town does more than any other city to help people off the streets sustainably, with R64 million committed over the latest two financial years towards a range of social interventions. These include Safe Spaces, Grant-in-aid funding to shelters, EPWP jobs, reintegration staff, and developmental programmes. That is aside from our primary healthcare services and substance abuse treatment programme, which has an 80% success rate,’ said the City’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato.<br><br><strong>Homelessness not to be confused with a housing shortage</strong></p><p>Haven Night Shelter CEO, Hassan Khan, is offering expert testimony in support of the City’s argument that ‘homelessness’ should not be confused with a housing shortage issue. The issue is more complex, and includes people choosing not to live in their homes. </p><p>The Haven defines a ‘homeless’ person as someone who is living on the street because of a breakdown in family relations, and consequently the loss of support from the family. The drivers of ‘homelessness’ vary, and are best addressed through social work, interventions to reintegrate persons into society or reunite them with family, and drug abuse treatment, among other services. </p><p>Homeless persons do not constitute a homogenous grouping simply requiring housing, as is often mistakenly assumed.</p><p>People live on the streets for many reasons including poverty, prolonged unemployment, substance abuse, mental illness, lack of housing, to escape unbearable domestic conditions, and as a response to personal trauma such as divorce, death of a loved one or a retrenchment.</p><p>Shelter spaces are a renewable resource</p><p>Homeless shelters are a renewable resource. Each time a person successfully reintegrates or rehabilitates, their bed space opens up for a new person to accept sustainable solutions off the streets.</p><p>It is therefore a false scenario to claim a lack of shelter capacity by simply comparing shelter spaces, of which there are about 2 500 in Cape Town, to estimates of the homeless population. </p><p>The number of people seeking accommodation at night shelters or City-run Safe Spaces has consistently been lower than available capacity.</p><p>It is a fact that each day in Cape Town, there are a significant number of vacant bed spaces in shelters and Safe Spaces, and the City offers these on a daily basis. </p><p>The shelter system is a pathway off the streets, with sufficient spaces in Cape Town to help all willing homeless persons off the streets progressively, and sustainably. </p><p>The City’s most recent census of Cape Town’s ‘homeless’, found there were 2 084 people sleeping in shelters out of a total population of 6 175, a marginal increase from 4 862 counted in the 2014/15 census. </p><p>The City wishes to categorically state that the often quoted figure of 14 000 ‘homeless’ in Cape Town is incorrect, and not based on any credible data. </p><p>The NPOs citing this figure do not have their own data, and instead relied on the City’s 2018/19 census data, but did not follow credible methodology to arrive at their estimate. The City is preparing a new census, which will yield credible data. </p><p>Cape Town leads SA on caring for the homeless</p><p>Cape Town is SA’s leading metro for social development assistance to help people off the streets. The key pillars of the City’s programme are reintegration, rehabilitation, and an offer of shelter while these interventions are under way.</p><p>Reintegration occurs through measures such as employment, skills development, reunification with family, and developing functional lives within society. </p><p>Rehabilitation includes medical treatment, substance abuse programmes, mental illness support, and therapy that promotes a stable, healthy, functional, and self-sufficient lifestyle.</p><p>These interventions include the offer of shelter at one of the City’s NGO partners, or at one of the City-run Safe Spaces.</p><p>While the national and provincial governments hold the constitutional welfare mandate and budget, the City is going above and beyond its municipal mandate to help people get off the streets sustainably. These are some of the strategies in place: </p><ul><li><div style="text-align:left;">Cape Town is SA’s only metro with a social development budget aimed at people living on the street, with R64,1 million estimated Street People Programme in 2020/21.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">A Reintegration Unit working daily to link willing individuals to shelters, reunite families where possible, and offer support to obtain ID documents, social grants, employment training, and EPWP jobs.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">1 600 shelter placements, 1 550 EPWP work placements, 575 reunifications with family, three Safe Spaces opened with 700 total capacity, and R13,5 million provided to support shelters from 2016 – 2021.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">‘Safe Space’ facilities opened in the CBD and Bellville with a total capacity for 700 persons under normal conditions, all offering two to three meals per day, blankets, mattresses and vanity packs on entry, substance abuse interventions, skills training, ID book assistance, and EPWP work placement.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Annual Winter Readiness campaigns to support shelters and bolster capacity for when the worst weather arrives.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">The City’s ‘Give Dignity’ campaign encourages the public to support sustainable solutions to help people get off the streets by making responsible, impactful donations directly to shelters and NGO partners.</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Help is available for the many who end up on the streets due to drug addiction, via placement in the City’s Matrix® substance abuse programme, which has shown an 80% success rate.</div></li></ul><p><br><strong>End</strong></p><p> </p> | 2021-10-17T22:00:00Z | | | | | | | 1 | | | |
| Firearm confiscation numbers on the rise | Metro Police officers recovered a firearm in Bonteheuwel early on Sunday morning, after responding to gunshots fired in the area. | <p></p><span><p>Metro Police officers recovered a firearm in Bonteheuwel early on Sunday morning, after responding to gunshots fired in the area. </p><p>It was the latest in a series of firearm confiscations in recent months.</p><p>Just before 01:00, officers on patrol in the area heard gunfire and responded. On arrival, they noticed a silver Toyota Tazz speeding away from the area. Officers pulled over the vehicle in Jakkalsvlei Road and conducted a search, with the owner’s permission.</p>
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<img class="responsive" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Centre/firearm.jpg" alt="" style="width:1069px;" /> </figure></span><span><p>They found a Z88 9mm pistol under the driver’s seat – three suspects in their early thirties were detained at Bishop Lavis SAPS for the possession of an illegal firearm and discharging of a firearm in a municipal area.</p><p>‘Our enforcement staff are making regular firearm confiscations, which is testament to the proliferation of firearms on our streets. However, the rate of confiscations of imitation firearms and zip guns also requires interrogation. One possible explanation is that the continued confiscation of illegal firearms by Metro Police and Law Enforcement, as well as the South African Police Services, has led to criminals struggling to obtain access to illegal firearms and resorting to making their own zip guns or using imitation firearms,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith. </p><p> </p>
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<img class="responsive" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Centre/zipgun2.jpg" alt="" style="width:1069px;" /> </figure></span><span><p>Between 1 July and 12 October this year, the Metro Police Department confiscated 13 firearms, 10 imitation firearms and three zip guns. <br><br>During the same period, officers attached to the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan confiscated 38 firearms, 38 imitation firearms and three zip guns.</p>
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<img class="responsive" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/Media%20Centre/zipgun1.jpg" alt="" style="width:2531px;" /> </figure></span><p>During general enforcement efforts in the past week, the City’s agencies made 260 arrests. </p><ul><li><div style="text-align:left;">Metro Police officers arrested 130 suspects and issued 3 027 fines</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Law Enforcement officers made 80 arrests and issued 2 462 fines for various transgressions. </div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">City Traffic officers arrested 50 suspects – 36 for driving under the influence of alcohol – and impounded 124 vehicles, 154 cellphones and issued 59 703 fines.</div></li></ul><p><br><strong>End</strong></p><span></span><span></span><span></span> | 2021-10-17T22:00:00Z | | | | | | | 1 | | | |
