Judge rejects city's recusal bid in evictions case
The Western Cape High Court has dismissed an urgent application brought by the City of Cape Town requesting that Judge Rosheni Allie recuse herself on grounds that she could be biased.
But Allie dismissed the application with costs, says a News24 report.
Allie was hearing the virtual case where lobby group Ndifuna Ukwazi challenged the eviction carried out against District Six residents two weeks ago.
The organisation was representing 46 homeless people whose structures were destroyed and personal belongings taken by city law enforcement officials.
The city's legal counsel, Roseline Nyman, told the court that Allie showed bias for not allowing the city to file its heads of argument and for allowing the case to proceed.
Nyman told the court that the city felt it had received a bias reception from the judge based on some comments she made over the homeless people being dispossessed of their belongings during the evictions.
Allie, however, said it would be common cause that people were dispossessed of their belongings when evicted.
She dismissed the idea that the city didn't have enough time to file its heads of arguments, saying there was ‘ample time’, and added that the court had been prepared to hear the urgent application.
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.
