Cape Town - Durbanville police are investigating an attempted murder case, after a homeless man was set alight, while sleeping inside his structure at Kwartel Street, Morningstar.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said that, according to reports, 21-year-old Granville Titus was burnt by a known suspect, who poured petrol on him and set him alight at 11.40pm.
“The victim sustained injuries to his upper body. He is currently receiving medical treatment in a nearby hospital. The suspect fled the scene and is yet to be arrested. Investigations continue,” said Van Wyk.
Resident, Morne Joseph, who had taken up the task of helping Titus, said the incident followed a series of social media posts, where community members posted that homeless people were putting up structures in the area. He said this stirred up a lot of anger in other people.
“It is very inhumane and disgusting that another human being is able to do that to someone who has already nothing in life. We will be tapping into all our resources available to get behind this and establish why this was done to the homeless person.
“Granville is well known to us, he operates with his little dog in town. He is in hospital at the moment in a lot of pain and we do not know where his dog is,” he said.
Joseph, who condemned the act, said people needed to understand the reasons that lead to homelessness.
“At the moment, homeless people – as per other individuals in the community – are causing havoc. Homeless people are normal people that once had it all working out for them in life and, because of bad decisions and rough patches in life, they end up where they are today.
“However, this doesn't make us any better human beings than what they are, besides that they are facing social and economic problems, which is a generic problem in our lives today. They are there because they lost family members, because of poverty and hunger, and other elements that contributed to them being on their streets. We still have to keep living and be humane towards them,” said Joseph.