Every year there are displaced individuals walking around campus and every year students are complaining. Will this ever not be a problem or are actual changes being made to the community’s current reality?
Homelessness in South Africa worsens every year. According to statistics released by Stats SA, the number of homeless individuals in 2022 added up to 55 719 people. According to the Western Cape Government’s 2022 Socio-Economic Profile for the Stellenbosch Municipality, Stellenbosch’s estimated unemployment rate stood at 16.1% in 2021. This makes Stellenbosch the town with the second highest unemployment rate in the Cape Winelands District.
Most students regularly come across displaced individuals asking for food or money. This is, of course, because Stellenbosch University (SU) has an open campus.
Dr Viljoen van der Walt, Director for Risk and Protection Services at SU said, “Campus Security identified dealing with the homeless problem as one of its priorities for the year and partners with, amongst others, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and other law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of the campus community on an ongoing basis.” Campus security is also partnering with the Stellenbosch Homelessness Forum and the U-turn Foundation to find a better way of helping homeless people, rather than just removing them from the campus.
It can be noted that without the services from campus security, the problem of homelessness on campus would have been out of control by now.
Van der Walt said, “over the past week [28 April to 4 May] alone, between two to 13 displaced individuals have been removed from campus in places where they attempted to sleep for the night.”
It is advised to not give money to displaced individuals, but rather to buy and hand out food coupons to individuals who ask, and to support organisations who aid homeless people in Stellenbosch. Campus security encourages individuals to report any kind of harassment and other security-related matters.
Whether the problem of displaced individuals on campus will get better, can only be determined (it seems) by the economic decline or growth in the country, seeing as unemployment is the primary reason for homelessness in South Africa.
By Jana Burger
