Judge in Khayelitsha land invasion case made it clear City must protect its land
19 April 2020
According to the Judge who gave the interim order in the Khayelitsha illegal land invasion case, the City is entitled to protect its land.
According to the Judge who gave the interim order in the Khayelitsha illegal land invasion case, the City is entitled to protect its land.
The Judge made an interim ruling on humanitarian grounds due to the COVID-19 crisis and without considering the merits of the application is allowing 49 occupiers to re-erect structures. The merits of the application will be decided after the lockdown ends.
The City is allowed to remove any new illegally erected structures with immediate effect. Land invasions are illegal. The Judge acknowledged this aspect and emphatically denounced land grabs. In fact, the Legal Resources Centre wanted 300 people to be ‘returned’ to the land. The Judge made it clear 49 may return in the interim until the merits of the case are heard.
I note Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s visit to the site in question but also her request that members of the community stop illegal land invasions, which is aligned to the City’s stance and what we have been saying all along. However, shortly after the Minister left the site earlier today, new attempts to invade the land got under way.
To note: The National Government lockdown regulations prohibit ‘evictions’ during the COVID-19 lockdown. The City’s action on the site in question is not in terms of eviction as defined by the national laws. It is in accordance with an interdict to prevent attempted illegal occupations and within its remedy of counter-spoliation. The City did not act contrary to the lockdown regulations or the national law. The matter is still to go to court despite all the misinformation being actively espoused.
Facts are simple
This was not an eviction. The images embedded here shows the land was unoccupied (are circled in red refers) and no one was living there contrary to the misinformation that is being spread. On 4 April 2020, one structure (occupied). On 8 April 2020, illegally erected structures and the land on 13 April 2020 (image on the far right). (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m77irpbon0gi99h/AABvbdqcu0-cnohhiM13yzeha?dl=0)
The land is earmarked for the expansion of basic services infrastructure. If it is lost, the City will not be able to cater to the increased demand. The City does not have the capacity to deal with more settlements created due to illegal land invasion, particularly as it rolls out its COVID-19 response in informal settlements.
The City reiterates:
- In Khayelitsha, the City removed illegally erected unoccupied structures in accordance with an interdict that prohibits further and attempted invasion on the site in question. This was not an eviction in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act nor then in terms of the National Government lockdown regulations contrary to the misinformation out there.
- As per a City affidavit, the photographs produced on 16 April 2020 depicting people sleeping outside for days or what suits the manipulation of the situation, were refuted as the City and its contractor secured the site until 22:00 on the previous evening and there was no one sleeping on the site, save for a couple of people standing around on the site. So it is clearly a setup of imagery to distort the facts and to drive a particular agenda.
- There’s been a rapid increase in attempted illegal occupations during the national COVID-19 crisis.
- The National Disaster Declaration, unlike what is being reported does not place a moratorium on the removal of unoccupied structures. It places a moratorium on ‘evictions’. There is a difference in the law.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office