ORGANISATIONS working with the homeless in Cape Town are boycotting a police-sponsored homelessness awareness day because they say policemen are abusing street dwellers.
They accuse the SAPS of failing to take adequate action against police officers who mistreat vagrants. The police are investigating allegations that one officer poured thinners over a teenage boy and set him alight.
The events planned by the police include a march through central Cape Town to raise money for Christmas festivities for homeless people, followed by a concert at the Waterfront.
“We don’t want to be part of legitimising a police force that holds marches for homeless people and still brutalises children,” said Annette Cockburn, director of the Homestead Project for Street Children.
Father Declan Collins, of the Salesian Institute, said the institute had declined to participate in the events because reports of abuse by police were investigated by the police themselves.