Photos | Homelessness in SA: Surviving another cold season in the streets

NEWS

There have been conflicting reports on the number of homeless people in Gauteng, South Africa’s most densely populated province.

In 2020, then acting social development MEC Panyaza Lesufi said there were about 50 000 homeless people in the province, whom the government struggled to house when Covid-19 broke out.

According to Africa Check, the number varies depending on the definition of homelessness. It is estimated to be as high as 200 000 in the whole of South Africa.

Last year, Gauteng’s former social development MEC Morakane Mosupyoe said the growing number of homeless people remained a cause for concern for the government in the province:

Some of the province’s homeless people are catered for in eight government and nongovernment shelters across the city, mainly in Hillbrow, Florida, Turffontein and Roodepoort.

With a population of about 224 million, Nigeria is reported to have the world’s highest number of homeless people – about 24 million.

A woman looks at another person asleep on a pavement in downtown Johannesburg

A homeless man sleeps on a pavement in Braamfontein, Johannesburg

A man stands close to his haphazard shelter on Oxford Road in the suburb of Saxonwold

On Wilgerood Road in Roodepoort, a man gazes at the sky while he sits on his bag that contains all his things

A man scavenges for food in refuse bins near Johannesburg Park Station

Another homeless young man, in downtown Johannesburg, rummages through a bag containing all his belongings

A young man sits dejectedly on a pavement in the Johannesburg CBD