City of Cape Town doubles its budget for winter programme

Loyiso Langeni

18 May 2015

The City of Cape Town has this year doubled its budget for the annual winter street people programme to over six-hundred-thousand.

The programme allows non-governmental organisations to apply for aid so that they can increase their capacity to deal with the influx of street people seeking shelter and assistance during the winter months.

Mayoral Committee Member for Social Development and Early Childhood Development Suzette Little said they have already started the aid including non-perishable food, blankets, and mattresses

Little added that they  are now finalising the application processes for NGOs and other civic organisations who would like to apply for the aid.

"I also want to renew my appeal to the members of the public do not support beggars but to rather make a tangible difference in the lives of our street people by giving responsibly and supporting a local shelter or NGO or a street person in their area a hand up instead of hand out as that simple perpetuate the cycle of dependence and aggressive begging.” Little said.