The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled the eviction of a group illegally occupying a property in Dunkeld was unlawful, and they should be allowed to move back onto the property, says a News24 report.

In an urgent application heard by Judge Gregory Wright on Friday, lawyers from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri), who represent 35 people occupying the property, argued the eviction was unlawful.

They said this was because the occupants had been occupying the space unlawfully for years and were protected under the Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

On Tuesday, the Red Ants descended on a property in Bompas Road to evict 100 people who were illegally squatting on the property.

Representatives of the property owner had been granted an interim order to prevent people from erecting structures and living on the property.

On Friday, they argued people had invaded the property between December and January 2021 and had not been there for years, as they claimed. This meant they could not be protected under the Act.

In an affidavit by Gcina Mncube, who said she had lived on the property for 11 years, she argued the interim order obtained in February did not apply to them as they were not recent occupants, and they did not know the people cited in the papers.

‘If those people, in fact, exist, they are not the applicants in this application. We are the people who have been residing in our homes on the property for years. We are entitled to the protection of the Act. The first and second respondents were not entitled to evict us on the strength of the interim interdict,’ read Mncube's affidavit.

The group was given until 3 May to make submissions as to why the February interim order should not be made permanent.

Full News24 report