All the unlawful occupiers of a block of flats in Berea, Johanneburg, want is for the city to provide them with alternative accommodation – and, having failed in the High Court and SCA, took the matter to the Constitutional Court yesterday. The owner of the building‚ Calvin Maseko‚ has been unable to move in to renovate the building, notes a TimesLIVE report.

This is despite the liquidators obtaining an eviction order from the High Court in September 2013 – a decision the occupiers are unhappy with as the person they sent to court to handle their case failed to ask the court to grant them the postponement they sought so that they could get funding for lawyers to defend the eviction.

Judge Nomsa Khumalo made an eviction order ‘by agreement’‚ because she was informed by counsel for the liquidators and the man acting for the residents that they had consented to an eviction order.

Two appeal attempts in the High Court and the SCA to have the eviction order set aside failed.

Yesterday‚ the Constitutional Court heard their application for the repeal of the eviction order. The occupiers also want the eviction matter to be sent back to the High Court‚ where they will have an opportunity to respond. They also want the City of Johannesburg to be joined in the application.

The report notes a judgment in the Constitutional Court in 2011 said municipalities had a duty to provide alternative accommodation if an eviction from a private property would result in occupiers being left homeless. The liquidators are opposing the application. Judgment was reserved.

Full TimesLIVE report