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As we prepare for Freedom Day, let us remember that how we respect and enhance the freedom of those who are destitute and less fortunate than ourselves, especially the homeless, either enhances our own freedom or not, writes Wesley Seale.
If you are poor and destitute, the DA simply does not care about you.
"But the Western Cape is the best run province in the South Africa."
"Cape Town is the best run city in the country."
These phrases are part of the DA propaganda machinery and are often blurted out when one challenges the DA.
Yet we only have to ask the people currently living in the Strandfontein homeless camp whether the City of Cape Town works for them.
The city calls it the Strandfontein Temporary Emergency Shelter and says that an open sports field, near the bitterly cold False Bay coast, was the only available facility in which to place the city’s homeless population.
In a letter to the people of Cape Town, dated 20 April 2020, Mayor Dan Plato writes that "… stadiums [sic], halls and facilities like the CTICC and Good Hope Centre have been earmarked as field hospitals, isolation, quarantine and screening facilities …"
As at the time of writing, the City of Cape Town had only 856 reported positive cases of Covid19.
The reality is that the city, at this stage, does not need to use those stadia, halls and facilities like the CTICC and Good Hope Centre as field hospitals.
We have yet to hear which of these facilities are being used for isolation, quarantine and screening at the moment.
All the more, the city insists that it is a temporary measure with the mayor stating that "… the sports complex will be restored to its original use following the lockdown ... "
However, all of us, including President Ramaphosa himself, is unsure exactly when the lockdown will end. Does the end of the lockdown mean the end of the hard lockdown or when all restrictions have been lifted?
In other parts of the country, homeless people have been housed in schools and shelters.
On the same day as the mayor’s letter, the international organisation, Doctor’s Without Borders (MSF), once again called on the city to close the Strandfontein shelter.
Given that the DA so vigorously promotes listening to the experts, one would think that they would grab the opportunity to listen to these experts.
The DA will not listen to the experts now because the people needing attention are poor and destitute. If you are poor and destitute, the DA simply does not care about you.
In fact, those who support the DA’s dumping of the poor in Strandfontein are often the ones who are better off.
"They must be grateful", "beggars can't be choosers", these ones argue.
As we traverse these Covid-19 lockdown days, one often wonders what Madiba would have said about this situation.
The words of his that come to mind are the ones when he said:
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
The DA should learn that that "freedom of others" includes the poor.
As we prepare for Freedom Day, let us remember that how we respect and enhance the freedom of those who are destitute and less fortunate than ourselves, especially the homeless, either enhances our own freedom or not.
A mature voter votes for a party not for what that party can offer him or her but rather for what that party offers to better the lot of the most vulnerable in our society.
- Wesley Seale is a PhD candidate in Beijing. He lectured South African politics at UWC and Rhodes University.
