Criminal activities - including a prostitution ring - contributed to St George’s Cathedral’s decision to shut down it’s soup kitchen.
|||Cape town - Criminal activities - including a prostitution ring operated outside the Arch soup kitchen by people who bought food there - contributed to St George’s Cathedral’s decision to shut it down.
“You would get one or two cars pull up in Queen Victoria Street looking for ‘rent boys’,” said cathedral verger Eddy Esau who has lived on and supervised the precinct for 22 years.
He said the cathedral had become aware of prostitution outside the Arch two years ago and had alerted law enforcement. “On a Monday morning we get condom packets and condoms lying right in front of the bell tower,” he said.
A stabbing, drug abuse and theft were other incidents witnessed during the soup kitchen’s operation. Esau said a German tourist who had left a Sunday service early had been accosted and her gold chain stolen. After security apprehended the culprit, “the guy actually swallowed the gold chain”.
St George’s Cathedral dean Michael Weeder said criminal activities and intimidation of Arch staff were just some of the factors in the decision to close the kitchen. He said it was decided six years ago after a report found the soup kitchen was not providing a “holistic” support service to the homeless who ate there.
“In a sense we’re only supplying another narcotic to dull the day. Running a soup kitchen is not affecting the progression of a person’s quality of life,” he said.
The dean met representatives from the mayor’s office this week to discuss his decision to close the Arch despite an offer of R50 000 from the mayor’s Special Fund.
“A decision was made that the money should still come to the cathedral. I suggested that some of that goes immediately to the Service Dining Rooms. The rest will go to our ministries that support homeless people in different ways.”
The meeting had been the “beginning of a series of conversations” to discuss how the cathedral could collaborate in supporting the homeless, including becoming a member of the Street People’s Forum.
Weeder had been contacted by the public numerous times this week with offers of money. “If citizens can sustain this outpouring of solidarity then hopefully the closing of the Arch will be a temporary thing.”
benjamin.katz@inl.co.za
Cape Times