Dwellers chant outside court

2008-01-04 16:35

Cape Town - Hundreds of homeless backyard dwellers, expecting the Cape High Court to stop their evictions from incomplete homes in Delft on the Cape Flats, chanted noisily outside the court building on Thursday.

As they sang and danced, journalists packed into the building's spacious Court No 1, to hear Judge Deon van Zyl's judgment in the case.

Thursday had been set as the "return date", after the judge had on December 27 granted a temporary interdict to stop their evictions at the hands of developers Thubelisha Homes (TH).

But confusion reigned - the expected court proceedings did not take place, and the journalists waited for hours in the court room before it was finally cleared and locked.

A "return date" in interdict proceedings is the date on which the person interdicted - in this case Thubelisha Homes - goes to court to present his reasons why the interdict should be set aside.

It transpired that the eviction order used by TH to evict the alleged illegal occupants of the Delft Homes was granted by the Bellville Magistrate's Court in July, 2006, in an unrelated matter - and was not intended for the current evictions.

Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, told reporters he had been informed that Judge van Zyl had dealt with the matter in chambers, and not in open court.

He said the judge had ordered TH to launch its own eviction application, which is scheduled for hearing in the Cape High Court on January 11.

The incomplete houses in Delft form part of the N2 Gateway project, intended for residents who are to be relocated from the Joe Slovo informal settlement.

However, the Joe Slovo residents themselves do not want to move, and recently launched their own proceedings to stop their relocation.

Judgment in the Joe Slovo relocation case was reserved late last year, and has still to be delivered.

- SAPA