Durban Officials Face Imprisonment for Cato Crest Evictions

Manqoba Nxumalo, mail& Guardian

11 Sep 2013

The eThekwini municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole and the head of the Land Invasions Unit have been ordered to appear before the Durban High Court on Thursday to explain why they should not be imprisoned for contempt of court for continuing with Cato Crest shack demolitions despite a court order prohibiting the destruction of shacks.

On Friday September 6 2013, Abahlali baseMjondolo and residents of Cato Crest informal settlement approached the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban for the third time to prevent the eThekwini municipality from illegally destroying their homes.

​​​Read more: Cato Crest: Land hunger of ’Marikana’ proportions

The judge granted an interim order compelling Sithole and the head of the Land Invasion Unit to appear in court on Thursday, September 12, to explain why they should not be imprisoned for 30 days.

Sbu Zikode, from the Abahlali baseMjondolo’s shack dweller’s movement, said they were shocked that the municipality could flagrantly disregard a court order and that they looked forward to Thursday’s hearing.

We obtained yet another order because the municipality continues to go against the law and now they face arrest, Zikode said on Tuesday.

The order further directed the municipality to construct temporary habitable dwellings that afford shelter, privacy and amenities at least equivalent to those destroyed, and which are capable of being dismantled, at the site at which their previous informal housing structures were demolished to the residents whose shacks were demolished on September 1 and 2.

This has not been done.

When the state wilfully disobeys a court order, it makes a criminal of itself. It subverts the rule of law. It tears the fabric of our constitutional democracy, said Stuart Wilson, executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri).

It is unacceptable that poor residents of an informal settlement must go to court three times in order to stop the illegal demolition of their homes ... It is equally disturbing that the only way to hold a municipality accountable to enforce court orders is to bring individual office-bearers to court on pain of imprisonment for contempt.

Appointed local government enforcers often face threats and violence when they attempt to disband informal communities taking advantage of loopholes in land use management legislation.

Original source

Abahlali baseMjondolo and 30 Others v eThekwini Municipality and Others (’Cato Crest’)

23 Sep 2013

SERI represents residents of the Cato Crest informal settlement whose shacks were illegal demolished by eThekwini Municipality and the Land Invasion Unit. On 1 and 2 September 2013 the municipality illegally demolished shacks at the settlement, in violation of an undertaking made to the Durban High Court on 22 August 2013 that it would halt evictions pending the finalisation of the application for a final order.

On 2 September 2013 the residents, assisted by Abahlali baseCato Crest - a newly formed branch of Abahlali baseMjondolo - went to the Durban High Court on an urgent basis to stop the evictions. An urgent interdict was granted by the court interdicting and restraining the municipality from evicting the named Cato Crest residents or demolishing their structures without a court order. It further orders the municipality to construct “temporary habitable dwellings that afford shelter, privacy and amenities at least equivalent to those destroyed, and which are capable of being dismantled, at the site at which their previous informal housing structures were demolished” to the residents whose shacks were demolished on 1 and 2 September. The residents were represented in court by SERI’s correspondent in Durban, Nichols Attorneys, and Adv David Saks.

Despite this interdict, the municipality continued to demolish shacks. The residents were forced to return to court on 6 September for the third time to apply for a contempt of court order. The Durban High Court granted a rule nisi (an interim order to be confirmed at a later date) which compels the Municipal Manager of eThekwini Municipality and the Head of the Land Invasion Unit to appear at court on Thursday 12 September to explain why they should not be imprisoned for 30 days for allowing illegal evictions to continue at Cato Crest in contempt of court. Despite this, demolitions continued at the settlement.

On 12 September the respondents delivered their answering affidavit in respect of the contempt application. A supplementary affidavit was also filed by Abahlali baseMjondolo setting out the facts of the most recent demolitions at the settlement. The parties agreed to an order which directs the legal representatives of the parties to meet at the settlement on 17 September to identify and mark the residents’ shacks. The municipality is interdicted and restrained from demolishing, removing or otherwise disposing of any of these informal structures pending the finalisation of the application. The illegal evictions at Cato Crest informal settlement continued over the weekend of 14 and 15 September, despite the interdict.

Original source

Back