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The Rhodesian Herald,

18 June 1969

AS the nights get colder, it is taking Salisbury’s many pavement sleepers longer to get to sleep.

Extra bedding from newspapers, sacks and plastic bags is supplementing their meagre blankets, but it is midnight before they fall less asleep.

Fortunately, it has been a mild winter for the sleepers on “Skid Row” — the corner of Second Street and Railway Avenue — however cold, it gets they will not move.

For they have nowhere else to go. They are either jobless, self-employed or part-time employed Africans and have not the one shilling and six pence a night to sleep in the hostels.

They say they cannot sleep with relatives in the African townships as they fear being arrested for illegal lodging.

Enoch Ncube, a 21-year old African from Mhondoro said: “It is very cold here, but I have grown accustomed to sleeping rough”.

Enoch and his 10 friends, all bachelors between 16 and 25, battle to keep warm by using a few blankets supplemented with sacks and thin plastic bags.

In the morning they bundle their “blankets” and take them to the banks of the Makabusi River where they hide them.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

Homelessness is a major problem still facing modern society. It is found in every country and every continent.

The vulnerability of homeless people is more pronounced during this Covid-19 pandemic, since exposure to extreme cold weather can result in them having hypothermia, pneumonia and other cold-related illnesses.

Many of them are abused, in some cases by people with the capacity to assist them.

Although some people think that our social systems have failed as people sleep on streets and pavements, they do not become part of the solution. The problem recurs every day, throughout the year. Our social welfare system is overstretched, while critics and those that have are unwilling to extend a hand of assistance.

There are a plethora of reasons that lead people — young and old — to live on the streets all their lifetime, unless good Samaritans rescue them.

When weather conditions are rough, especially the current cold weather spell, it is incumbent upon those that have, to remember the less fortunate who do not have a roof over their heads.

Giving selflessly is a gift. The First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa and like-minded people are demonstrating that as they try to remove people from the streets, have them housed, and rehabilitated.