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Eviction lawyer cape town Archives | Eviction Lawyers South Africa

Aug 12
0

‘Shots fired’, items burnt in Duduza eviction raises red flags

By | Eviction news, Evictions
IN PICS: ‘Shots fired’, items burnt in Duduza eviction raises red flags

Some of the shacks being set alight during the raid. Photo: supplied.

Officers responded to the area from Wednesday and demolished shacks built next to the river.

In a letter penned to the executive mayor of the city of Ekurhuleni, the Black First Land First (BLF) has questioned an eviction by the city’s officers, where Ekurhuleni Metro (EMPD) officer’s targetted Ward 102 in Duduza and allegedly set alight some of the properties.

According to the BLF, the EMPD without warning or a court order evicted over 100 people and destroyed around 34 shacks, last week in the bustling township of Duduza, in Tembisa.

In the letter seen by The Citizen, the movement alleges EMPD officers unleashed rubber bullets, destroyed shacks and set some goods on fire during the unlawful attacks on scores of people, left homeless following the eviction.

At the scene of the evictions, BLF arrived to find people in grief, with two children aged two and three, with no clothes except for the clothes on their backs.

“Yet again we see the state denying rights to the most vulnerable of our society.

“There is no dispute that the evictions carried out are unlawful. Let’s remind you, Mr Mayor, that when the national lockdown commenced, the Government Gazette on 26 March 2020, stated that ‘all evictions and the execution of attachment orders, both movable and immovable, including the removal of movable assets and sales in execution is suspended with immediate effect for the duration of the lockdown’.

“This regulation is in place under Level 3 of the lockdown. Therefore even if there was a court order to evict, such an order would be suspended by the regulation. In this case, it’s worse because no court order has in fact been obtained according to the victims of the evictions by your police.”

The movement, urging the city to return all confiscated material, asked for those whose belongings were burnt to be compensated. Action against officers who broke the law by executing an unlawful eviction must be taken, BLF demanded.

“I also wish to remind you that in terms of the Constitution no one may be evicted without a court order. Section 26(3) of the Constitution is clear that ‘no one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances,’” the movement said.

While the movement has called for answers including evidence of the court order, attempts to contact the city were fruitless at the time of publishing, despite numerous attempts to the city, for comment. It was in a Sowetan report, that MMC for community safety Phaladi Mmoko defended its decision to demolish shacks in the informal settlement, in Tembisa.

Mmoko justified the eviction by stating that the people had attempted a land invasion, as they had not lived in the area for a long time.

“If we were going to be found sleeping on our job we were going to be dealing with thousands. If a person occupies government land illegally, we are duty-bound to go and remove that person. Our interest is to safeguard the property of the municipality.”

While the police, Ekurhuleni metro, and BLF butt heads over the questionable eviction, the Human Rights Commission’s Gushwell Brooks in providing some insight on evictions, said the commission’s stance on the evictions issue was for evictions to be put on hold, as they would render people homeless, considering the current economical climate.

Proper legal notice, with measures to accommodate the tenants, with an alternative were necessary steps in ensuring human rights took precedent.

Although he said the commission urged the Gauteng government to put a hold on evictions, he noted that there remained issues of land invasions that most metro’s had to address, which in turn resulted in a “double-edged sword” scenario.

Reprinted from The Citizen (emphasis by SD Law*)

Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our eviction attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction.

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Aug 05
0

Dozens of brick and mortar homes built by occupiers demolished on Monday

By | Commercial eviction, Eviction news, Evictions

Public Works claims it only demolished newly built and incomplete homes

Photo: Johnnie Isaac

Hundreds of people who occupied land belonging to the Department of Public Works near the East London Airport were left homeless on Monday when their homes were demolished.

Hundreds of people who occupied land near the East London Airport were left homeless on Monday when their homes were demolished.

At least 100 homes, some made of concrete blocks and mortar, were built on a piece of land belonging to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

Some residents watched as the heavy machinery demolished their homes. Others anxiously await the return of the court sheriff who had warned of further demolitions this week. Community leaders estimate that the building materials lost add up to hundreds of thousands of rand.

Several people claimed that they had bought plots for between R500 and R15,000, but community dnied this.

Thabile Manuel had just moved into her home in June after spending nearly a year building it. “I am in deep pain with what is happening right now. We have lost everything we have put towards building this house. We did not even get eviction notices. We just saw the police coming and demolitions starting,” she said.

Other residents told GroundUp they had received eviction notices but only when the court sheriff arrived with the police. The notice dated back to 2017.

Thembile Ndibaza claims that they were given permission to occupy the land. “When we showed those agreements to the police, they told us that those papers are not legitimate. The sheriff is using a letter dated 2017 for a different piece of land, not this one.”

Ndibaza said they decided to build on the land a few years ago because it had become a crime hotspot. “Women used to get raped here, dead bodies dumped here and stolen livestock also got slaughtered here. Since we built houses, those activities stopped,” he said.

Another resident, Lulama Rantjie, said, “We are left with nothing. They took our furniture and our building material. We don’t know where we are going to sleep.”

Department of Public Works and Infrastructure spokesperson Lunga Mahlangu said residents were warned about pending evictions because the land is not designated for housing.

“We only demolished new structures, unoccupied structures and structures that were under construction. Those structures fell on the piece of land that is not designated for human settlemen; it interferes with the airport runway,” said Mahlangu.

It is unclear if the department will obtain a court order for the remaining homes.

Reprinted from GroundUp by

Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction.

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Aug 04
0

260 lockdown ‘land invasions’ and counting for City of Cape Town

By | COVID 19, Eviction news, Eviction notice, Evictions

The land invaders use graders to erect illegal structures.

The land invaders use graders to erect illegal structures.
  • There have been at least 260 incidents of alleged land invasions in Cape Town during the April to July lockdown period.
  • In addition to damage to roads and infrastructure, more than R1.3 billion of housing projects are under threat.
  • The provincial government is counting on the police and the SANDF to step up arrests of perpetrators.

The City of Cape Town has dealt with 260 incidents of alleged illegal land occupation between April and July’s lockdown, the Western Cape government said in a plea to the police and military for help to stave off “highly coordinated and sophisticated” incidents.

This comes as shacks are erected amid violent clashes with law enforcement authorities, and new settlements, with names such as “Covid Village”, emerge to reflect the complexities of the situation during the coronavirus pandemic.

One settlement sprung up on the path of the Diep River, near Dunoon, and during the recent heavy storms, the shacks were submerged in water.

A joint statement by MECs for Human Settlements, Tertius Simmers, Community Safety, Albert Fritz, and Local Government, Anton Bredell, said they are consulting provincially and with the City of Cape Town over the crisis.

A meeting scheduled between Fritz and national police commissioner Khehla Sitole for Tuesday is aimed at getting more help in coordinating the prevention of invasions and the arrests of perpetrators.

They also called on courts not to let those arrested off with a “slap on the wrist”.

When a naked Bulelani Qolani was dragged out of his Khayelitsha shack in June, it wasn’t the first eviction residents like him experienced — and it won’t be the last. But where must residents go?

In the latest attempts at occupying vacant land, there have been violent clashes between large groups of people and police in Kraaifontein.

At the weekend, a Metro Police officer was burnt when an incendiary device was thrown at the vehicle he was in. He doused the fire, but sustained injuries to his face and neck.

Injured

The City of Cape Town said at least 40 staffers had been injured in altercations.

Reports indicate that civilians are also being injured during these confrontations.

“I condemn the violent protest action surrounding many of the land invasions in the strongest terms,” said Fritz.

“The land invasions taking placing are highly coordinated and sophisticated in their execution, having already occupied large plots of land in areas such as Wallacedene, Bloekombos and Khayelitsha.

“In many cases, the land being occupied is already designated for services aimed at developing the communities and, therefore, undermines the community in which it takes place.

“It is completely unacceptable that infrastructure, such as roads and arterials, are being damaged by tire burning and that the safety and well-being of residents is further being infringed on by the stone throwing, petrol bombs and other violent and dangerous behaviour.

“It has become clear that those who are complicit and involved in these illegal events only have criminal intentions,” stated Simmers.

Bredell said the issue was widespread across the province.

The Western Cape government has indicated that it is also having problems handing houses over to beneficiaries as some people are preventing the occupation of the newly built houses.

The Disaster Management Act regulations prevent evictions during the period of the declared disaster, and also prohibits illegal land occupation.

We would like to win that land in Stellenbosch because it belongs to us – ‘Azania’ residents

However, Western Cape High Court Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe ruled in favour of Hout Bay’s Ginola Phillips, whose Wendy house in Hangberg was taken down. He had been evicted from a site he had built on.

Salie-Hlophe called the eviction “deplorable” and ordered that his goods be returned and that his home be rebuilt.

Reprinted from News 24 by Jenni Evans

Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction.

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