Concern over the homeless displaced from Albert Park

THE Umbilo Business Association (UBA) is concerned about the repercussions that the removal of homeless people and drug addicts from Albert Park will have on the surrounding businesses and residential areas.

- ZAINUL DAWOOD

The eThekwini Municipality recently conducted a clean-up operation of the eyesore Albert Park and fenced off the area so that residents could reclaim the park and put it to good use. Drug addicts and homeless people had created makeshift shelters in the park - a problem that the municipality has been grappling with for more than a decade.

Ian Campbell-Gillies, a representative of the Umbilo Business Association, said that over many years the SAPS and Metro pursued an “unconscionable policy of chasing homeless/addicted/ criminal communities from one part of Durban to another".

“It was not entirely their fault; the ANC's centrist policies have failed to provide funding and humane guidelines for first-world solutions to the problem. For the very first time, subsequent to enclosing various parks in the Umbilo area, Metro recognised the need for government policy and funding with respect to the homeless of Durban,” he said.

Campbell-Gillies added that this was done by allowing a group to occupy a disused power substation on Khuzimpi Shezi Road in Umbilo.