SECUENCIA DE OPERACIÓN 1 GENERAL

This third inquiry of the study covers a conversation about homeless people presenting their views on how public health problems are linked to their own homelessness in inner city of Tshwane. The report identifies physical and mental health challenges to be real and rife among homeless people. In the first event of reporting on physical health, they responded that in townships mostly young people with HIV infections are forced to flee their homes because of discrimination against them. This practice, however, is not only from their relatives, as churches and the community at large have also been listed among the perpetrators. The researcher recorded that in one way or another, these victims of HIV discrimination who had already lost a sense of community belonging became discouraged and then resolved that running into the city was their last option to hide their status (Nhlanhla 2012).

Although during the conversation homeless people did not directly disclose their own HIV status [as it was not the researcher’s interest], they shared knowledge of victims who have run to the city due to family rejections and discrimination. In this important inquiry, the researcher then proceeded by carefully listening to Nhlanhla when he made the following valuable comments (Nhlanhla 2012):

Townships are not good places to stay especially if people know that someone is HIV positive, they do not want to come close to him or her as if the victim is a dangerous animal which should be avoided. When HIV positive victims walk around on the streets, neighbours talk bad against

91

them and that none should go around them. Even sometimes when you pass, you would hear children in the neighbourhood mentioning names of people who are HIV positive which causes more distress. One of the ways the victims deal with their situations is simply to go to the city where they believe that no one will identify them. As they arrive to the city, and cannot find themselves means to live, they stay on the streets and their conditions get worse there.

Tshepo’s experience confirmed this view, highlighting that discrimination against HIV positive people has reached a particular stage in the churches of the townships. He explained that some leaders preach that the HIV and AIDS pandemic is God’s judgement for sinners, which ends up making people confused (Tsepho 2012).

Mbiza commented that the victims develop a feeling of rejection and depression in their families and those who belong to churches get discouraged from attending services. He describes the situation further, showing how the victims think that a better option for them is to go and find refuge in the city (Tshepo 2012):

The issue of discriminating HIV positive people in the townships has become the way life and this causes deeper psychological pains to the victims. The problem exists even in the church and sometimes the victims do not feel like they want to go to the church because of fearing that they would be condemned through preaching and teachings. As the victims fail to get a support from their immediate family ties and the church, they believe that a better solution to their problem is to go to the city to start a new life where they think no one would easily identify them. But, when they arrive in there the situation becomes worse because of sleeping outside without no one take care about them.

To confirm the above report, the researcher’s attention is attracted to Byamugisha, Steinitz, Williams and Zondi (2002:47) who researched the township churches’ response to HIV and AIDS, referring to Gugulethu in the Western Cape. In their concluding remarks, it is expressed that most African independent churches in the townships have limited knowledge on how to handle people infected and affected by the HIV pandemic. The researcher’s attention is also captured by another local researcher, Landman (2003:199), who unveils a new element which was not mentioned in the homeless conversion related to this same church weakness. The research narrates a story of a 15 year old homeless prostitute who was taken off the streets and who was reunited with her family under the care of her aunt. After family

92

integration, her cousin raped her and infected her with HIV. This incident made her then regret leaving the streets and she felt that she should go back. She defended this move by saying that: “I was safer on the streets, because customers used condoms and my cousin did not... I have to go back to the streets to make money so that I can stay on my own and get out of my aunt’s house...” (Landman 2003:200).

This is an experience whereby girls run away by themselves from their families for safety reasons. On the other side of the conversation, homeless people argued that girls may also be forced by their parents to go to the city for prostitution to get money to support the family. As they get involved in this business, they contract HIV, which prevents them from going back home, because they fear discrimination (Akanani 2012b).

Other elements pertaining to physical health that contribute to homelessness in the inner city of Tshwane have been deliberated, focussing on substance abuse. In the researcher’s observations of drug and alcohol addicts, as mentioned in the introduction of this section, victims look physically unhealthy, exhibiting signs such as coughing, walking problems with swollen feet, rashes on their bodies, swollen faces, red eyes, injuries, and bruises on the body. The researcher learned from them that living on the streets remains a better option than staying in a normal house. Here is the view of Malusi (2012):

On the streets, I get money from part-time jobs and car guarding. I do not think of renting of a flat. I have my full freedom and can sleep wherever I want to sleep without fear that someone will lock me out because of failing to pay rent. I spend my money on buying food and beer to drink with my friends. Before I go to drink, I make sure to leave my property at Wesley Methodist Church with the Caretaker so that I do not lose it or other people steal it from me. I like to drink because the beer makes me feel free. Sometimes my friends tell me that I will die of drink too much alcohol, but I do not see myself stopping it.

It is in the same perspective that Juppe, a drug addicted homeless person, also explained why staying on the streets is better than moving to a house (Juppe, 2012):

I arrived here in the city of Pretoria for more than ten years ago and till now I am used to sleep outside. I feel happy to sleep on the streets with

93

other homeless guys but one problem is that the metro police officers harass us and take our stuff. I mostly get money by doing prostitution with other men who come to meet me around here in the Burgers Park. Sometimes, we exchange sex with drugs but mostly, I want money to buy drugs by myself because I know the type of drugs which makes me happy. Once I have used drugs, they keep me away from the people and make me want sugar and sweet stuff rather than alcohol. I like a type of drug called swazi for it helps me to think about my life. I do not inject myself drugs like my friends who use strong drugs which make them going out on the streets to commit crime… anything which makes you fight is evil and I do not like that... other homeless people like to inject themselves drugs; seven people can use one needle at the same time… this is a risk… HIV is a real thing and I fear it…9

In the second scenario of mental health challenges and its link with homelessness in the inner city of Tshwane, the story of a homeless woman who frequently comes to TLF/The Potter’s House to request assistance is helpful. She does not look physically or mentally unwell, but her problem is easily observed when she is angry. The researcher remembers three separate incidents when she threatened to stab to death other vulnerable women accommodated in The Potter’s House shelter. In one incident, she was holding a knife which was removed from her by a security officer. During the researcher’s conversation about her homelessness, she expressed herself as follows (Thembi 2012):

I have been sleeping on the streets for several years here in the city and now I am used to this kind of life. I moved to different women shelters and they asked me to leave. The explanation given is that my mental status is not allowing them to keep me in their shelters. When I insisted for a help, they would mention that I am a violent and dangerous person to myself and to other women. They would advise me that I should go to stay in Weskoppies Hospital10. When I go to the hospital to explain my station, they only give me tablets and that is all what they can do for me.

Another situation describing the homelessness of mental patients in the inner city of Tshwane refers to the rejection by their respective families, much like people living with HIV and AIDS. One of the reasons causing such rejection is when an HIV positive person’s family believe her/him to have been bewitched but then refuses to be taken to consult traditional healers. From her experience of working with mental

9

In transcribing the interview report, Juppe was not able to confirm the spelling of the names of drugs he uses because he does not know how to write.

94

patients, Ntsibane (2012), one of the caregivers at Gilead Community House11, states the following:

People with mental illness are rejected and discriminated in their own families and communities where they live. In some cultures, people believe that a person who is mental sick has been bewitched… the relatives think that the sickness can only be treated by the traditional healers. If the patient refuses to be subjected to family instruction of going to the traditional healers, the relatives refuse to stay with him or her fearing that they would also end up experiencing the same fate. The patients then end up running away from their homes to stay on the streets because there is no care or a sense of family belonging.

During the conversation with one of the patients who stayed in Gilead Community House, he confirmed that his wife always called him a “mad person” for refusing to consult a traditional healer, since it was against his will. He was happy to state that if he had not been referred to Gilead he would be staying on the streets, because his wife had made it clear that she did not want him in the house (Rutang 2012).

In assessing the perspectives of the two scenarios of physical and mental health experiences, the recommendations of Hartman (2011) are important to underline that homeless patients are unable to care for themselves while living on the streets. After researching what factors contributed to the increase in homeless patients on the streets in Australia, the Department of Housing (2009:2) came up with a new plan to stop patients being discharged from institutions of health without housing options. The researcher’s own view, based on these recommendations and homeless reports, is that as long as there are no housing options connected to discharge from health care facilities, homeless patients will substantially increase in the inner city of Tshwane.