Fear of losing her baby twins during the Covid-19 lockdown gave Mpho Temo the courage to give up life on the streets and reunite with her family.
27-year-old Temo from Soweto had been living on the streets of Johannesburg for more than a year before she was taken in by a shelter for homeless people in Hillbrow during lockdown. She was heavily pregnant.
Since the shelter is not designed to accommodate children, Social Workers tried to reunite her with her family in Pimville. When they succeeded, Temo became one of 483 homeless people reintegrated after 2,752 were taken off the streets and placed in 45 city shelters when the pandemic hit. Temporary shelters provided psychosocial support, medical assessments and treatment for substance abuse, but not all residents stayed the course.
Almost 600 returned to the streets, and the same number discharged themselves from drug rehabilitation centres. Temo said peer pressure made her leave home to live on the streets. "I was just naive. All I wanted was freedom and to be with my friends. I just wanted to do as I like," she said during an interview with Weekly Bulletin at her uncle's four-room house in Pimville, where she has also been reunited with her six-year-old son.
She ended up at the shelter after being bundled into an SA National Defence Force truck when soldiers were brought in to enforce the lockdown in March. "When I arrived at the shelter I didn't know that I was expecting twins. I got the shock of my life during childbirth," she explains.
Social Workers told her they would look for foster homes because the shelter was not suitable for the babies. "I didn't want to lose my children. The centre then assisted me to get in contact with my family. Now
I'm happy I took that decision to go back home," Temo added.
Temo's younger sister, Lebohang, said she was cautiously hopeful about the future. "Mpho is back now but still behaves the same way as when she was still in the streets," she said. "She must now just realise that she has three children and stop smoking these illegal and harmful substances."
Temo acknowledged that she had been smoking but refused to say which drug she used.
Leona Pienaar, of the Mould Empower Serve (MES), a homeless shelter funded by the department, said reunification "cannot be a forced process, or within days the person will be back on the streets".
Temo's journey home had been difficult, she said, because her family were worried about how she would stay sober and care for her children. "It took social workers and counsellors about five weeks to get them to agree."
Now social workers and counsellors visit Temo and her family weekly. "Not everyone wants to go home. Those who have managed to bridge that gap need to be supported constantly," said Pienaar.
The department is currently rolling out an integrated strategy that will ensure that all the role players respond
adequately in response to plight of the homeless.