Across the City of Cape Town, the ever-growing homeless crisis is being exacerbated by misinformation from politicians and some irresponsible elements of the mainstream media.
According to the latest data, there are more homeless people in Cape Town now than ever before. This translates to thousands of people being identified as homeless on any given night. But a more profound story unfolds once you look past the statistics and scan the city streets. These are not just numbers crunched in a computer system, circulating through cyberspace. Instead, the numbers represent real people facing unimaginable circumstances.
As you read this, people are living their lives in tents, struggling to survive in the sewers beneath our streets, washing n rivers and public toilets, shuffling their children through the shelter system and, heartbreakingly, sometimes losing them to it. How did we get here? Why can’t we end the horrific cycle?
At this point, you might be thinking of political corruption, perhaps. Perhaps you’ve considered toxic consumerism, the lack of affordable housing, inflation, lay-offs, and mass wage stagnation.
All these are key components in causing the homeless crisis. However, when it comes to fuelling the crisis, perpetuating the vicious cycle and turning this solvable problem into an overly complicated puzzle with no apparent solution, there are arguably two significant culprits: Cape Town’s politicians and sections of the mainstream press spreading misinformation.
Politicians and mainstream media play a pivotal role in shaping public opinion about marginalised groups, such as members of the homeless population. A significant majority of all Capetonians who participated in an online survey said they based their opinion of homelessness and homeless individuals on what they saw on the streets or in the news.
When it comes to covering the homeless crisis, much of the mainstream media has failed in its task of disseminating accurate and insightful information. All too often, when members of the public try to research the crisis and gain a better understanding of the situation at hand, they are bombarded with misinformation. What does that look like?
Misinformation is defined as “false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive”. This kind of information can be difficult to identify, especially when it comes from a seemingly neutral source like a news team, a popular website, your favourite TV show, or even everyone’s favourite mayor.
Here are some common types of misinformation you might have encountered:
Fabricated Content:
These are untrue statements. Sometimes they appear as breaking news and are then quietly corrected later, once most viewers have moved on. This happened recently during a spate of thefts in Sea Point and Camps Bay. The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, made claims attributing the thefts to “the homeless”, which were then fed to the media and perpetuated as fact. However, when the culprits were apprehended in Camps Bay, they were found with stolen items not matching the initial description, effectively disproving the earlier claims. Anticipated Content:
A recent example of this occurred when a neighbourhood watch guard pepper-sprayed and attacked homeless people in Sea Point for scavenging in bins outside Ocean View Drive. When the story broke, some segments of the mainstream media inaccurately reported a homeless person as the attacker, furthering the harmful stereotype that homeless people are violent and criminal.
This is is Part 1, of a two part series...
* Carlos Mesquita is a homeless activist and also works as a researcher for the Good party in the Western Cape Legislature
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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