{"id":45659,"date":"2023-03-12T21:05:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T21:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists"},"modified":"2023-03-12T21:09:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T21:09:28","slug":"as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists","title":{"rendered":"As lights go off, homeless offer respite to Johannesburg motorists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>As soon as the power goes off and the traffic lights are out, homeless men sporting bright-green high-visibility vests emerge apparently from nowhere and start directing the cars at a busy Johannesburg intersection.<\/p>\n

South Africa is buckling under unprecedented power cuts, which are crippling everything from manufacturing to the flow of traffic.<\/p>\n

But for Johannesburg’s army of homeless people, the crisis is an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Ordinarily, when stop lights go out, the police come and direct the traffic at city crossroads.<\/p>\n

But the power cuts are so pervasive that there are not enough officers to cope — and this is where the homeless step in, pocketing tiny donations from drivers in exchange for directing the traffic.<\/p>\n

“Without us being around here it is causing a couple of accidents,” Aubrey Ndlovu, a 31-year-old migrant from Zimbabwe, told AFP at an intersection in the affluent northern suburb of Bryanston.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s highway code says that at crossroads without lights, the first car to arrive has right of passage — but the pecking order gets messy when the intersection gets congested and nobody can remember who next has priority.<\/p>\n

The informal traffic wardens thus intervene to organise the flow.<\/p>\n

“Even the small change people give us helps us get by,” said Ndlovu.<\/p>\n

Johannesburg police spokesman Xolani Fihla admitted that “a large amount of unauthorised people like homeless and vagrant people” were controlling the traffic during power cuts.<\/p>\n

They are “doing a commendable job,” he said, while emphasising that the city was not liable for any accidents that might occur under their watch.<\/p>\n

“They do help a lot, but they are a risk at the same time,” said Sphelele Mpukwana, a Johannesburg motorist, suggesting they be trained in traffic directing.<\/p>\n

Ndlovu and his friend Ben Dube, 30, hope this will become true one day. Their current home is a spot under a local billboard.<\/p>\n

Without training, they face a high risk of being hit by cars in a country where crashes kill thousands of people every year.<\/p>\n

And not all drivers approve of what they are doing.<\/p>\n

Some “swear at us, they are always in a rush,” Dube said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. As soon as the power goes off and the traffic lights are out, homeless men sporting bright-green high-visibility vests emerge apparently from nowhere and start directing the cars at a busy Johannesburg intersection. South Africa is buckling under unprecedented power cuts, which are crippling everything from manufacturing to the flow of traffic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":45658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[274,315,21,303,275,4782],"class_list":["post-45659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-homeless","tag-load-shedding","tag-south-africa-2","tag-traffic-lights"],"yoast_head":"\nAs lights go off, homeless offer respite to Johannesburg motorists - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As soon as the power goes off and the traffic lights are out, homeless men sporting bright-green high-visibility vests e ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As lights go off, homeless offer respite to Johannesburg motorists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As soon as the power goes off and the traffic lights are out, homeless men sporting bright-green high-visibility vests e ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-12T21:05:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-12T21:09:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678642531.45.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"As lights go off, homeless offer respite to Johannesburg motorists\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-12T21:05:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-12T21:09:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678642531.45.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"homeless\",\"load shedding\",\"South-Africa\",\"traffic lights\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/as-lights-go-off-homeless-offer-respite-to-johannesburg-motorists\",\"name\":\"As lights go off, homeless offer respite to Johannesburg motorists - 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