A homeless teenager who endangers his life by sitting in traffic on a busy East London road has ducked and dived to avoid efforts by hospital staff, police, social workers and a community activist to rescue him.
The Dispatch was told that a number of interventions had been made to rescue the disturbed 15-year-old from self-harm and being a danger to the public.
The government is considering having the troubled youth diagnosed and treated in mental institution.
Every time someone tries to assist, he absconds and makes his way back to Nompumelelo, occasionally to family but mostly to an abandoned shack where his mother was slain by his father more than a decade ago.
The boy, only three at the time, is said to have been present when she was killed.
According to police and officials from the provincial department of social development, there have been a number of attempts to remove the 15-year-old from where he stands, sits or lies between the traffic lanes in Bonza Bay Road, Beacon Bay, including taking him to get professional medical help.
Department of health provincial spokesperson Yonela Dekeda confirmed last week that the teen had been admitted to Frere Hospital on March 4 and discharged a month later, on April 4.
This was after Gonubie activist Amanda Timms stepped in and called the police to have the youngster removed from harm’s way.
Dekeda said: “He was found to be stable and discharged after treatment [medication].
“However, we cannot disclose the reasons for his admission, due to confidentiality.
“He was discharged into the care of a responsible family member. The family member was to take the patient to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital for a review on April 26.”
She said a social worker had informed the relative of the care and support the teenager needed.
In the latest official comment, Eastern Cape social development head of department Mzimkhulu Macheba hinted at the possibility of forcefully removing the boy and having him committed for diagnosis and treatment.
He said his department was obtaining legal advice on how to do this.
Macheba said: “Because he absconds, we should take legal advice because it’s a matter that traverses between the department of social development and the department of health.”
He said it was not enough for the department to only point out what it has done on the matter so far while the boy was still on the streets.
“It looks like there is a problem here. What options, legally, does the government have? Let’s go back and test that so that if we are to take this child forcefully, legally we are covered. We don’t want to, while trying to do the right thing, be found to have overreached,” he said.
Provincial police spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli confirmed that in 2021 police had received complaints about the youngster. “Several attempts were made in partnership with the department of social development to arrange alternative accommodation for him, but he never stayed.”
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