Waste pickers haven't given up on eviction battle
The 60 waste pickers who live next to SuperSport Park in Centurion – informally known as Mushroomville – have failed in their first step to ask the court for a lifeline to remain on the land.
A Pretoria News report notes that the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), ordered their eviction in June, but the group is still on the land as the City of Tshwane prepares new land for them in Sutherland Ridge.
But the group, with the aid of Lawyers for Human Rights, want to appeal their eviction order.
Judge Hans Fabricius, who ordered their eviction, however, earlier turned down their application for leave to appeal. The group turned to the SCA, where they launched a petition for leave to appeal, but as their petition is 15 days late, the first step is to ask the Appeal Court for condonation.
The owner of the Centurion property, Turnover Trading, and the city are determined to evict the group as per the court order, but the waste pickers turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last week in a desperate bid to ask that the execution of the order be halted until the appeal court had dealt with the issue.
The waste pickers said in their latest papers before court that the owners had not yet received the go-ahead from the city to build a hotel planned for the land and all indications were that this would take some time.
They argued that it wouldn't cause any harm if they remained on the land until the appeal court had dealt with their application.
The High Court, however, turned down their application.
Lawyers for Human Rights attorney, Louise du Plessis, said they had now approached the SCA to urgently deal with their petition.
She said if that court granted them condonation for their late application, the eviction order would be put on ice pending the final word from that court.
If the appeal court turned them down at the first hurdle, they would turn to the Constitutional Court, the Pretoria News report quotes her as saying.
One of the contentious issues is that while the city is preparing alternative accommodation for the group on vacant land in Sutherland Ridge, the city specifically maintained that they may not operate their waste picking activities from there, nor may they take their waste removal carts along.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
