EDITOR — I am disturbed by the increase of people who have resorted to begging in order to eke a living.
While I admit that life is hard these days as a result of the increasing number of people unemployed, I do, however, disagree with more than half of the people on the streets who insist that their only option is to beg.
I acknowledge that there are different profiles of people on the street.
Some are vagrants, while others may be mentally challenged and these honestly deserve our sympathy. There is also an older generation of blind people who were unfortunate not to get any form of education to sustain themselves.
These are not the ones who make me angry.
I am angry at the able-bodied men and women who shun work and opt to scrounge for whatever they can from an already suffering populace.
You can tell that some of these beggars are coming from decent lodgings, but spend the day duping unsuspecting Good Samaritans after formulating sad stories of how they have ended up stranded in the concrete jungle on their way from a funeral or something like that.
The worst bunch are the mothers who shepherd their children into begging, who wake up from their dwellings, dress their children in rags and instruct them to tell lies to the unsuspecting public that they are orphans.
We cannot condone or entertain such people, especially considering the fact that there are disabled people selling various wares in the streets earning an honest living.

Baba Tawa,
Ruwa