Cape Town – South Africans are fuming after pictures of Durban Metro Police officers allegedly throwing homeless people’s blankets in a dumpster truck surfaced on social media.
Angry residents responding to a Facebook post on the Umbilo Community Police Forum’s page described the officers’ actions as “absolutely inhumane and unfair”, especially now that winter was approaching.
According to the post on Umbilo Community Police Forum’s, Facebook page, Metro Police were conducting a vagrant “cleanup” operation in Umbilo.
However, Metro police spokesperson, Parboo Sewpersad denied the allegations, claiming that the image was manipulated to appear as if police were throwing away the blankets, reported IOL.
“The city has been doing clean-up operations for many years. Part of the problem is vagrancy, and the NGOs are encouraging this kind of behaviour on the street rather than taking them to shelters and homes.
“But this particular vagrant [in image above] said that he is tired of being moved by the police. He voluntarily put his stuff in the refuse truck. Businesses have been complaining to us because they can’t open their doors because the vagrants sleep outside them,” the report quoted Sewpersad as saying.
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Luyando Ndlovu who was one of the homeless victims, told etv that their blankets were allegedly forcefully taken away from them while they were sleeping and they were left cold.
Responding to the Facebook post, Ward Councillor at EThekwini Municipality, Sakhile Mngadi said the matter was not handled correctly.
“Head of Metro has issued instruction for an investigation and report on this to be released and communicated to me and I will update everyone shortly,” he said.
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Picture: Facebook/@Umbilo Community Police Forum
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
