Homeless victimisation in South Africa and its potential inclusion in the Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill

• Author: Pophaim, J.P.
• Citation: (2021) 34 SACJ 259
• Published date: 17 November 2021
• Date: 17 November 2021
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v34/i2a5
• Pages: 259-280

Homeless victimisation in South

Africa and its potential inclusion

in the Hate Crime and Hate

SpeechBill

JEAN-PAUL POPHAIM*

ABSTRACT

Homelessness is widely seen as a persis tent social issue, one that ha s

existed for many years. Alt hough notably under-researched , there exist

some reports of severe exper iences of victimis ation. Due to the very natur e

of their lifestyle a nd other external factors, homeless individuals c an expect

to, and often do experience violence and vict imisation at disprop ortionate

rates. Further more, homeless individuals are commonly viewed as a sur plus

population or a disposable mass t hat cannot possibly be rega rded as what

society considers an ‘ideal v ictim’. With the presence of negative social ly

constructed label s, they are frequently expose d to harsh treatment by other

members of society and con sequently stripped of t heir basic constitutiona l

rights, where in many context s, their very exis tence is crimin alised.

Protective legislation at a domestic level is a neglec ted area and is yet

to align with some major inter national developments, where homeless

victimisation h as already been identi ed as a serious enough problem that

arguments for its inclusion unde r hate crime legislation have already started

to surface. This paper t herefore aims to put forward an argument regarding

the plausibility of includi ng the status of homelessness as a ne w category

under the developing Hate Crime and Hate Spe ech Bill of South A frica.

1 Introduction

Homelessness is a widespread phenomenon and can be witnessed

across the world.1 Given the transient natu re of this population, there

is very little data related to homelessness as well as homeless persons’

experiences of v ictimisation.2 Regardless of th is limitation, there is still

a sufcient amount of evidence that indicates that homeless individua ls

are in fact frequently exposed to harsh circ umstances, which include,

* MSocSci (UFS), Lect urer in Criminology, University of t he Free State.

1 O Olufemi ‘Street homele ssness in Johannes burg inner-c ity: A prelimin ary sur vey’

(1998) 10 Envir on & Urbaniz 223.

2 J Scureld, P Rees & P Nor man ‘Crim inal victim isation of the homeless: a n

investigation of Big Issue vendor s in Leeds’ (2004 ) 99 Radical Stati stics 3.

https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v34/i2a5

259

(2021) 34 SACJ 259

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

but are not limited to extreme levels of violence and victimi sation.3

Although largely dependent on population estimates, t he homeless

population (worldwide) is approximated to be somewhere between

100 million and one billion or more people and withi n the South African

context, the homeless population is estimated to be around 20 0,000

individuals.4 Given this la rge population size of potentially vulner able

individuals who are believed to be at high risk for traumatic injur ies,

violence, crime and victimisation, one would expect t he response to

homelessness to be far more prioritised and efcient than it act ually is.5

In many cases, homelessness is crimi nalised and members of th is

population are severely ill-treated; likewise, wit h regards to their

experiences of victimisation, ma ny cases go unreported and receive

little to no acknowledgement from police and/or the criminal just ice

system.6 In other cases, some homeless individuals m ay decide not to

report cases of victi misation for a number of reasons, one of which is

a cause for great concern: that they have a general distru st and lack of

faith in socio-legal safety net s, including the police and other sectors

of the crimina l justice system.7

From an international perspective, South A frica is a seemingly well-

adjusted country, and with its transformative exter ior, it may be seen by

many as a rather open society, which is all-inclusive in terms of t he vast

racial, social and economic dispar ities present among its population.8

However, with recurrent incidents of prejudice-motivated crimes, this

awless image or perception may not be a true reection of realit y.9

With a historical background l led with discrim ination, segregation

and marginalisation of cer tain groups, researchers have stated that

the history of our countr y sets the scene for hate crimes.10 As a result,

one cannot but postulate that many of these c rimes committed aga inst

the homeless are motivated by feelings of hate or dislike. According

to the generally accepted denition of a hate cri me, it is ‘a criminal

3 T Newburn & P Rock ‘Liv ing in fear: Violence and victimisat ion in the lives of single

homeless people’ (2004) 3.

4 Olufemi op cit (n1) 223; O Olufemi ‘Femini sation of poverty am ong the street

homeless women in South A frica’ (2000) 17 Devel’t S A 221 at 223; C Rule -

Groenewald, F Timol, E K halema & C Desmond ‘More t han just a roof: Unpack ing

homelessness’ HSRC (2015) available at https://www.hsrc.ac.za/review/hsrc-review-

march-2015/ unpacking-homlessne ss, accessed on 21 July 2017.

5 Newburn & Rock op cit (n3) 3.

6 Newburn & Rock op cit (n3) 3.

7 Newburn & Rock op cit (n3) 3.

8 JA Nel & M Judge ‘Exploring homophobic vic timisation i n Gauteng, South Afr ica:

Issues, impacts a nd responses’ (2008) 21 Acta Criminol 19.

9 Nel & Judge op cit (n8) 19.

10 Nel & Judge op cit (n8) 21.

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