When to give and when not to?

More and more people appear on the streets of Knysna and beg lately.
This is a phenomenon seen in many towns as unemployment escalates. South Africa's unemployment in the first quarter of 2017 increased by 1.2 percentage point to 27.7% –the highest figure since September 2003 and, although I could not find reliable statistics for this year, there is every reason why this figure would have grown, with the loss of jobs since the drought and an economy that is anything but robust.

In Knysna we have an ever-growing army of so-called car guards who are not parking attendants at all, but chancers who try and wrestle your shopping packets from you to carry to your car. Or what is even more plain annoying is their ploy of helping you park while all they actually accomplish is to stand in your way and hamper you.

Despite the red-bib parking attendant system in place here, with people who are vetted by the community police forum (CPF) and SAPS and are allowed to act as parking attendants and receive a tip, there are dozens of others with yellow bibs or no bibs at all.

If we were to tip them all even a couple of rand, where would it end?
Numbers of vagrants sleeping on the streets have increased and attempts to clear them out of favourite "camping" spots recently is not successful for very long because they simply move somewhere else or go back to where they were.

This is a problem which has to be tackled somehow. It is bigger than our sterling Cheryl Britz, head of Knysna's national award-winning CPF.

While Britz has her eye on vagrants all the time, what good is it moving people if they have nowhere to move to.

On Friday afternoon, three youngsters approached me for food at a shopping mall. They had apparently come to Knysna from up country to look for work.
Britz is so on the ball she had already spoken to them and was aware of their plight.

What to do? Buy them food or turn my back on about the fourth person encountered in just one outing.

I am always so aware of "There, but for the Grace of God, go I," but this makes the subject even more emotionally difficult.

There was really only one time I really didn't feel like giving at all. It was in a grocery store at the meat counter and somebody approached me with the usual "hungry and need food" line. He then proceeded to choose an expensive cut of meat and tell me it was for a braai and could I add it to my trolley.

This is a dilemma, one that is not going away.
If readers have ideas I would welcome them - elaine@groupeditors.co.za