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As the world commemorates World Homeless Day, 49-year-old homeless father of three, Frans Ramueda who lives in the streets of Polokwane in Limpopo, says being homeless is a terrible experience he wouldn’t want anyone to go through.
Armed with electrical skills but remain unemployed, the divorced father from Mpheni village, was left with not choice but to walk for over a hundred kilometres to Polokwane to live in the street while trying get odd jobs.
Ramueda says sometimes homeless people are kept at temporary shelters and often ill treated at shelters and called names such cockroaches by shelter officials.
“Living in the street is more painful when one is unemployed and lack money and water to drink. At shelters we are sometimes ill treated and called names such as cockroaches. At one stage we called a meeting and asked them why do they call us cockroaches, they denied calling us that but in their books we are identified as such.”
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Ramueda says sometimes people give them rotten food in the streets, while at shelters to they are sometimes not given healthy food.
He says they just have to accept whatever they are given due to their unfortunate situation.
“We sometimes spend a week without getting piece jobs, sometimes good samaritans bring home cooked meal, sometimes others give us expired food but we just eat because of our unfortunate situation. At shelters people are not treated nicely because we are forced to eat anything you are given. E.g if you don’t eat salty food you are forced to. If you don’t eat anything with sugar you are forced to and sometimes were are called cockroaches or hobos.”
Discussion on the plight of Singabalapha settlement dwellers:
