Khayelitsha residents ask court to place moratorium on evictions

Fed-up Khayelitsha residents want their magistrate’s court to intervene and place an immediate moratorium on evictions relating to two specific housing projects where issues remain unresolved.

They marched to the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday to hand over a memorandum.

The Alex La Guma sub-district of the SACP in Khayelitsha with the households of a section called “X-houses” and the Thubelitsha project in Makhaza and Mandela Park say these households were not the occupiers described in the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Property Act, hence a different approach was necessary.

Their memorandum, received by court manager Velile Yayi, read: “If the question of being an occupant for less than six months and the consideration of the elderly, women, children and the disabled is not the issue here, the issue is a court that only looks at the procedure followed by the applicants before granting an eviction order. It ignores the issue of whether these households are in fact unlawful occupiers and the circumstances that led to the current situation regarding the houses of Thubelitsha.

“First and foremost these households are not the occupiers that are described in the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from an Unlawful Occupation of Property Act.

“What is clear is that the court did not consider that fact. The court did not bother to know the history and circumstances that led to the current situation in those houses.

“There was a genuine process followed when these households got to be in possession of those houses that the court seems to be unaware of.

“There was also a process initiated by government entities in the housing sector. The court seems to be also unaware of these processes.

“The eviction order/s granted are not just and equitable. What we can deduce from this is that we have a court located in Khayelitsha, but detached from the realities of Khayelitsha. It seems to us that it is its desire to be detached.”

SACP member Monde Nqulwana said the houses in question were acquired by the households now living in them when other residents allegedly evicted from a previous failed housing project refused to move into them.

The houses had been offered to those evicted as alternative accommodation. However, he said, when they did not occupy them, this left the homes vacant which resulted in other people in need occupying the properties.

“Today we are confronted with people claiming ownership of those houses, but they refused to go at that time when the houses were given to them. For 22 years, since 2002 until now, they’ve never lived in those houses. Our fear is that if you successfully evict a person from a house into an area where you are not going to be accepted.

“That creates a conducive environment for thuggery (crime) against the person. It’s better for the people to leave on a mutual agreement, end these evictions, let’s create a dialogue,” Nqulwana said.

The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment by deadline on Wednesday.

Cape Times