bios

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The first question I had when I saw that The Haven Night Shelter are promoting, along with the CCID, a Homeless Golf Day was… When do the unhoused find the time to practice their swing?

However, the unhoused will probably not be invited to the Clovelly golf course, the event is instead to raise money to provide mobile ablutions to the homeless of Cape Town. Clovelly has around 1,550 members, with roughly 164 people playing the course on an average day. So the Golf Day is bound to attract some attention.

For years the City of Cape Town has tried in its ways to solve the homeless “problem”, gradients, spikes, no begging signs, the privatisation of public space for the sake of “being open for business”, cameras, intimidation, etc. The new solution seems to be, if we can't get rid of them, let's ask them to have a shower.

Providing mobile ablutions is essentially asking people to not shit on the pavements because it discourages shopping. Perhaps, and this might be a reach, we should be asking ourselves why are people forced to shit on the pavement in the first place?

Let me just get this out of the way, upfront. I have been homeless on the streets of Cape Town. I have tried to sleep on those fucking stupid benches. I have been searched randomly by CCID officers. I have been put in a van and dumped in Blikkiesdorp. I have been taken by force by CCID officers, upon the suspicion of being a drug user, to the central police station to be searched for drugs.

The CCID describes itself as having played an integral role in creating a “safe, clean, business friendly and welcoming inner city.” Its stated priorities include “creating a safe environment”, maintaining a “clean and socially uplifting environment”, and “driving business into town.” Its stated aim is to “get the basics right” and create “a stable climate” in which “all things are possible.”

All things include a private-public partnership financially supporting police officers, what could go wrong?

Under the City's policy, the CCID's private Public Safety Officers are not police officers and are not permitted to enforce municipal bylaws, conduct searches and seizures or make arrests, except for a citizen's arrest. They can patrol public spaces, monitor and report suspected bylaw violations and suspicious behaviour, and work alongside SAPS and City Law Enforcement.

But the CCID also funds dedicated City Law Enforcement Officers, who do have powers of arrest and can issue fines for bylaw contraventions. In 2024/25 the CCID deployed 327 Public Safety Officers, while its Safety and Security department currently lists 12 dedicated Law Enforcement Officers, which it says gives the organisation “the full reach of the law.”

Businesses who want clean pavements paying actual cops. Yay.

Public space being managed by private companies, who pay public service workers to police the public space. No conflicts there. I wonder if your Occupational Certificate: Real Estate Agent, NQF Level 4 is now part of qualifying to work for the Cape Metro Police.

But that's okay because the CCID is in partnership with The Haven Night Shelter, which provides shelter to some of Cape Town's homeless. The Haven operates 15 shelters across the Western Cape. The CCID estimates around 14,000 people are living on the streets of greater Cape Town, against only 3,500 shelter beds available from across all organisations in the Metro.

Access to those beds is not simply a matter of turning up and getting a place to sleep. People are screened and registered, the first five days are free, and thereafter residents are expected to contribute towards their stay where they can. The Haven's social workers assess residents and develop Personal Development Plans aimed at ultimately getting people back into homes. Its stated vision is that “No-one should have to live on our streets,” and it now describes its mission as helping homeless adults back “to a home, family and community.”

The CCID sponsors 25 beds year-round at The Haven's Napier Street shelter, and funds dozens more at Moira Henderson House during winter. Its stated purpose is to “move [people] off the streets.” The two organisations also collab on the Safe Sleeping Zone at The Haven's District Six branch, sleeping up to 60 people a night.

Which is all very noble, obviously. The CCID is working with The Haven to get homeless people off the streets.

The Haven is a non-profit organisation that receives public money. In its 2022 financial report, it reported R37 million in total income, with 47% coming from the Department of Social Development and 6% from the City of Cape Town. More recently, the City provided R12.7 million in 2025 for the Retreat expansion, which included 120 additional beds, ablution facilities and a dining hall.

R12.7 million for 120 beds. Sounds right.

Cape Town regulates begging and prohibits urinating and defecating in public places. People begging and shitting in public spaces is a direct result of economics, capitalism, inadequate systems of education, broken social and public health services. Asking homeless people to knyp because you don't want to process what society actually is, well it's a little constipated.

The Haven's tagline is a beautiful statement of intent, “No-one should have to live on our streets.”

I mean, “Shelter is a human right” would have sufficed, no?

Who is the “our” in this statement? Perhaps businessmen who play golf.

No one should have to sleep on the street, sure, but you will if you don't meet “our” conditions.

You're only a “someone” if you meet these conditions, therefore a no-one should actually have to sleep on the street.

And those people on the street should at least be presentable, right?

What the CCID and Haven Night Shelter partnership seemed to have missed is that they have already solved the problem. Get them out of the city centre. Invite the unhoused to live on the golf course. After all, hardly anyone uses it, relatively.