A Significant Moment?

Durban may have turned over a new leaf. Last month, for the first time in a few years, the City of Durban, South Africa (municipality and police) did not forcefully round up street children during the Tourism Indaba, an annual conference showcasing and marketing South Africa’s tourism potential.  Well done to the City of Durban! This is significant.

Durban has a history of rounding-up street children during conferences and beach festivals. The Non-aligned Movement Summit 1998, the Queen Elizabeth II visit to Durban also in the late 90’s, the World conference Against Racism in 2001 (ironically a conference about prejudice!) the annual Tourism Indaba’s, the list of events where these round-ups have happened goes on. Local activists are beginning to use the apartheid term “forced removals” to describe this. It is a quick fix solution that sweeps the issue under the carpet. Rather than a conscious strategy it seems to have become a bad habit that has formed out of a lack of clear direction on the issue and a lot of outside pressure from business and intense pressure from higher authorities to find some way of demonstrating delivery on the issue of crime in South Africa (some argue that, in a society where street children are automatically taken as criminals, the rounding up of street children provides statistics that can boost the authorities crime-fighting figures.) These round-ups remove the children from the streets, forcefully, and see them dropped at often substandard “internment centres” called “shelters” or even sometimes dumped outside the city in the bush in the middle of the night to scare them from coming back. Usually the children run from the makeshift shelters that they are dumped in and come straight back to the streets as these institutions often lack love, care and rehabilitation based on their needs.

Round-ups are a one size fits all prescription based not on the children’s needs but the desire to have a “cleaned-up” and polished city image. On one occasion a city official was pictured grinning, on the front of a local newspaper standing on Durban beachfront holding a pesticide spray machine used for eliminating cockroaches and other creatures that infest, as a “humorous” way of showing the City’s resolve to rid the beachfront of “vagrants” from the area. Not good, but hopefully in the past.

Preventing crime is cited as the main reason for the round-ups. However, when talking to police recently, officers echoed what those of us working with street children already know that, despite the fact that street children can be involved in petty crime and even serious crime, the percentage of urban crime committed by them is negligible. In other word, most crime in the city is not committed by street children. So does the rounding up street children even really make any difference in keeping tourists safe? This year, despite there being no roundups, the visitors were safe.

So why has the rounding up of street children been so consistent in recent years? It could be to do with the fact that street children are seen as a nuisance by society, pests. They are also seen as a threat to visitors and locals alike. A threat to safety by drivers at traffic lights, a threat to local business, a threat to residents and their children. Most complaints that arise about street children are when a group of street children is living near people’s business premises and are seen to be “harassing” customers or deflecting business. Other times it is when “unsightly” children are living on the streets in affluent areas and there is a fear that it brings down the image and financial value of the area. Many people find them an eyesore and a potential threat. People do not like to be reminded of social realities that exist on their doorstep. At the moment, an extremely wealthy town on the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, which is situated within a very short drive from some of the poorest townships in the region, has a “problem” with street children on their village green. They do not want the poor spilling out onto their streets. I have heard the following statements from residents and local business people: These children are a nuisance, someone will get hurt soon, we pay a lot of money for property here, they cannot stay here, we just need someone to remove them, they are bad for business, they harass our customers. Not often do I hear the following questions asked: What reality are these children fleeing that our village green is a better living option? Or, what is our responsibility as fellow human beings to these children and those who live in the areas that they come from?  You see, society has developed a warped view of the presence of street children as an “affecting us problem” rather than manifestation of serious social problems that leave young children as casualties. We see the children as a problem rather than as desperate and traumatised children trying to survive in the new South Africa. This means that there is huge pressure from so-called city “stakeholders” to reduce the number of street children. Let’s not forget that we all want to see a reduction of the number of street children, the issue is whether it is done in a sustainable and ethical manner and whether actions are in the best interest of the child and in-keeping with their constitutional and basic human rights. Ironically, sustainable and caring solutions that put the child interest first will, in the long run, benefit even those who just want to see the children removed from the streets.

Another reason that round-ups have been so well can be termed the “embarrassment scenario.”  This says that the very sight of street children suggests cracks in the social fabric of society and therefore a negative image of the city. This is true, it does. The reason is that something is wrong when children have to live on the streets. However, cities need to realise that there are many social conditions contributing to the fact that street children live on the streets. They range from local problems to national and international economic systems. It’s broad. However, identifying the local factors that contribute to children running to the streets will drastically reduce the number of children on the streets. What local authorities can do is, instead of sweeping the issue under the carpet and presenting a false smile to visitors, is to be a city that is and is seen as embracing its most vulnerable and addressing them with love and sustainable ideas. Durban is by no means the only city in the world that has street children.
Embracing street children compassionately will be in the best interest of the child, and, ironically creates a PR dream, which will develop a reputation as a caring city. Now this is a good!

The Tourism Indaba 2007 may prove to have been a seminal moment for street children in Durban. It may be the turning point which signals strategy change and a move away from “enforcement outreach” led by authorities trained in law enforcement to supporting relational outreach led by trained child and youth-care workers. Pragmatists within the city structures may have noticed that the round-ups do not provided lasting strategies (the children usually come back to the streets if their real needs are not met) and that something different is needed. South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup is certainly a driving force. However, city officials should be encouraged and congratulated at this stage. The lack of “forced removals” of street children at the indaba presents the city with a “kairos” moment before the World Cup to put into place a strategy for assisting its street children that will the envy of other cities.  Durban may have just turned a crucial corner in being able to demonstrate itself as a caring city with a sense of concern, responsibility and commitment to its most vulnerable citizens; the street children. I believe in Durban. I believe Durban cares. Viva Durban, Viva!

Tom Hewitt
Founder and Chair of Board Umthombo Street Children.
June 2007, Durban