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Former ward councilor Shaun Wilkinson has told residents to stop distributing food to the homeless after he mistakenly blamed the death of a boy from diarrheal disease on a man looking for food in a trash can. Experts say Wilkinson’s comments are abominable and demonstrate a dangerously low understanding of how the disease spreads.
Shaun Wilkinson’s full apology:
Hi dylan
Thanks for communicating
To my knowledge, we are currently in a Covid-19 crash.
As I understand it, citizens must exercise social distancing and self-isolation.
The SA government has published that all essential workers and others who move must have permits.
In the area where I move, I observe many people, including the homeless walking freely and without masks, gloves or any other form of disinfection.
Last week, a boy died in the neighborhood where I was elected in 2016 as a city councilor. A resident threw a mini oven into his trash can before city waste could get there. Later on the same day, a homeless man pulled him out of the trash can and it sounded like he had put it in the opposite garden and defecated in the same corner. The boy’s mother cleaned up after the homeless and moved the trash can to his garage. The 9-year-old rubbed the grass from the container and has since died of Shigella. The original owner of the oven does not have Shigella and neither does her fiancé who lives with them.
What I can tell you is that I was devastated by this incident. A total disaster for my understanding and something that could have been avoided. If I am wrong, then I am wrong and God will judge me for my reaction.
This is what I tried to say in my message sent through WhatsApp. The SA government has programs and departments that deal with this on a daily basis and in the city of Tshwane, there are interventions, in which shelters, places, camps and other actions are carried out on a daily basis, through which the homeless or others people who do not have a permanent place or shelter being cared for. In these places of hope and care, there are caregivers, nurses, doctors, police, metropolitan police serving daily hundreds and a thousand homeless people, since before the closure of Covid-19, during and probably after.
I’m not sure what part of my heartfelt plea offended your source (s), but I really think we have to do better. We have to do better as individuals, as a community, as a government and the private sector. I have some ideas that I can share with anyone who wants to do something about the thousands of homeless and poor people who roam these streets every day and not to mention the rest of society that will be economically affected forever by this Covid. 19 viruses and blocking.
As a last word, I deal with homeless people on a daily basis, and I can tell you if there is anything I have done to offend someone, then I apologize profusely, including homeless people, and if the people who contacted you are so upset that my apology is not enough, could you please consider forgiveness? But I ask, who will apologize to the mother who lost her child?
This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Center for Health Journalism. Subscribe to Bulletin.
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