Down and out in Pretoria

LIVING ROUGH: LIFE ON THE STREETS OF TSHWANE IS NO WAY TO LIVE, SAYS HOMELESS MAN

- Marizka Cotte

City planning to address their plight after numbers hit record levels.

It's cold on the streets of Pretoria as the winter winds knife through you, but the hearts of the people are even colder, says Deon Barry, a homeless man who sleeps under a bridge in Murrayfield.

"I am surviving. The people in this area take care of me. There are good people here and a few ars*holes who shout at me to get a job.

Then I shout back, "Where? Can I come work for you?" he says.

"It's cold, especially just before sunrise half-past five until halfpast eight is the coldest time on the street," he adds.

Barry says the water leak running down the street where he sleeps makes it even colder.