The Ngqushwa local municipality has been ordered by the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) to allow businesswoman Nolubabalo Mcinga to occupy its property after she was forcefully evicted on 8 September.

A Daily Dispatch report says Mcinga – who leases the Emthonjeni Lodge and Conference Centre in Hamburg – was removed by security guards hired by the municipality after lease negotiations failed.

Judge Nomathamsanqa Beshe said the municipality had taken the law into its own hands by evicting Mcinga, without an eviction order.

‘The municipality resorted to self-help in the absence of an order evicting the applicant from the property. In my view, the applicant has made a case for the order it seeks. Accordingly, the respondents are ordered to restore peaceful and undisturbed possession of the property to the applicant with immediate effect,’ Beshe said.

Mcinga said the bone of contention was the terms of the lease contract that did not speak to earlier agreements with the municipality.

‘When I occupied the facility in 2018 in was dilapidated, with no roof, blocked toilets and many other costly issues and I renovated it. Our agreement with the municipality was that I would not pay rent for three years due to the money I had invested in fixing the building. They changed their tune in 2019 when all of a sudden I was told I had to pay R55 000 monthly rent which I refused.’ 

Full Daily Dispatch report