I would like to highlight an issue which has been lingering in our city for a very long time. I am concerned about the living standards/ conditions of some of our direct provision centers. We have a big issue in regards to the way we treat those who are most vulenrable, one of the issues is that some residents in the centers are housed in one bedroom accomodations with sometimes two to three children with no living space. Children have no space to play and there's no privacy. Some of the open spaces are filthy and there are broken cables lying around. Some of the residents complain that they are consistatly bullied and harrassed.
It is concerning that the people in these centers are are voters in the local elections and yet they are ignored.
One of the things that the council could do is to inspect and perhaps audited on a regular basis. We need to protect the people, they are part of the community and we have taken them in with the promise of protecting them and yet we are failing them day by day, month by month, year by year and decays.
The direct provition system has been going on for 22 years and if it was a person then it would have been 22years old. It's time to stop this awful, unlawful injustice in our city. We can not let our children be blamed for the sins of their fathers.
Kind Regards,
Vusi Thabethe
Action
Concerned