A full bench of the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has declared a section of the SA Police Services Act used to allow police raids against residents of so-called ‘hijacked’ buildings constitutionally invalid.

According to a press release by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri), the court found that the provincial commissioner failed to apply her mind to the template-based applications for the authorisations which led to the warrantless raids of the applicants’ homes and simply rubber-stamped the applications brought to her.

The raids – ordered by former Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba – were ‘carried out in a manner that was cruel, humiliating, degrading and invasive’ and demonstrate an egregious abuse of, and infringement of the residents’ constitutional rights to privacy and dignity, the court held.

It set aside the decisions to issue the authorisations in terms of sections 6(2)(e)(i) and (ii) of PAJA respectively, as they were issued for a reason not authorised by s13(7) of the SAPS Act and for an ulterior purpose or motive – to intimidate the applicants into vacating the so-called ‘hijacked' buildings.

In its judgment, the court ordered the legislature to cure the constitutional defect within 24 months and pending the correction the section is to be read as 'excluding any private home and/or any person inside such private home'.

Khululiwe Bhengu, the Seri attorney representing the residents, said: ‘The courts continue to interpret the Constitution in way that vindicates the rights of the poor. Because of this judgment poor residents of the inner city can enjoy their homes without the fear of being raided by the police.’

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