People we spoke to describe being beaten with sjamboks by Ensure Security's masked guards. The company denies this.
- Homeless people in Durban say they are being assaulted, sometimes while sleeping, by members of a private security company contracted to the eThekwini municipality.
- The Dennis Hurley Centre, an organisation which provides services to homeless people, says it has received numerous complaints by many people of being attacked by the guards, who are often masked.
- A doctor volunteering at the centre confirmed that he has seen patients whose wounds are consistent with sjambok attacks.
- The Navi Pillay Research Group has urged the mayor to investigate the allegations.
People living on the streets of eThekwini's city centre are accusing guards working for a private security company called Ensure Security of targeting and assaulting them.
Now activists are calling on the municipality to investigate the allegations against the company.
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According to the eThekwini public tender records, Ensure was awarded a contract in September 2024 for "inner city precinct management: support services in the eThekwini municipality for a period of 36 months".
Homeless people say the introduction of the guards has been a nightmare for them. Zibusele Hlongwane alleges that he has been a victim of Ensure and has witnessed others being assaulted.
Hlongwane's first encounter was next to the Grayville Racecourse in April, he said. He and other homeless people were collecting recyclables to trade in for cash when Ensure Security guards arrived in a vehicle and instructed them to leave.
According to Hlongwane, the situation escalated when the group refused to go, and one of the guards pushed his head with a stiff sjambok and slapped him. The guards only left them alone when they agreed to leave, he said.
Since then, Hlongwane said he has seen several people being assaulted by the guards. In one incident, he said he saw masked guards beat a man who had been sleeping on the street near Block AK, a municipal tented shelter.
Hlongwane said that he has dedicated much of his time to helping the Dennis Hurley Centre, an organisation which provides services to homeless people, by providing official statements each time he witnesses an incident.
The Denis Hurley Centre sent GroundUp two written statements by other homeless people who also allege Ensure assaulted them while they were sleeping.
In most of these assaults, some or all of the attackers are masked so they cannot be identified, said Hlongwane.
Another homeless man, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of being targeted, told GroundUp he has been beaten by masked Ensure guards on multiple occasions while sleeping on the streets in South Beach. "No names, nothing, and if you want to ask for their names and things, they beat you further."
GroundUp also spoke to several other homeless people in the South Beach area who gave similar accounts of the often masked Ensure guards.
Earlier this month, Don O'Mahony, a doctor who volunteers at Denis Hurley's clinic, said that he treated five patients on 8 December with tramline bruises on their trunks and limbs. In the last few weeks, he had about four patients per week with similar injuries, he said. According to O'Mahony, tramline bruises are consistent with a sjambok attack, as its shape causes two parallel bruises to form around the area that was hit.
O'Mahony explained that one of the patients he saw that day had been blinded in the left eye by a sjambok assault.
In response to our questions about the alleged attacks, Kyle Connolly, Ensure's Chief Commercial Officer, said they were not aware of any incidents involving their guards. "Attacking them with sjamboks forms no part of our or the City's strategy," he said.
Connolly asked that we provide him with more evidence of the alleged assaults and said he could not further respond until talking to eThekwini Municipality.
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Call for urgent action
Following reports of the alleged assaults by Ensure, Raymond Perrier, director of the Dennis Hurley Centre, reached out to the Navi Pillay Research Group (NPRG) to assist in addressing the issue.
Janine Hicks, who lectures at UKZN's law school and is with the NPRG, reported the complaints to the City and asked for them to be investigated urgently.
"I am delighted to report that I received an immediate response from [mayor Cyril] Xaba, referring our correspondence to the city manager, and requesting his urgent attention to the matter," said Hicks.
GroundUp asked the City about this but received a response merely urging people to report incidents to the police.
But Perrier said that homeless people don't go to the police because they believe they will be treated badly due to past experiences. Perrier said the centre is collecting statements to submit to authorities if the situation does not improve.
