Johannesburg eviction rulings failings exposed
Research by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri) shows the Johannesburg Central Magistrate’s Court has failed to implement the law in its eviction rulings.
GroundUp reports that Seri analysed eviction rulings by the Magistrate’s Court from 2013-2018 in 12 wards in Johannesburg’s inner-city.
Researchers analysed whether the court had implemented relevant legislation when granting evictions, including section 26(3) of the Constitution, the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from & Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (the PIE Act) and case law.
According to the Constitution and the PIE Act, evictions must be carried out using a court order.
The PIE Act, which details the eviction procedure, states that occupiers must be served with a 14-day eviction notice and an eviction order from the court. The PIE Act also makes provisions for the City of Johannesburg to intervene and provide temporary emergency accommodation in cases where evictions lead to homelessness.
Seri found that eviction rulings failed to ‘properly apply the law in cases of inner-city evictions’.
The report found that eviction rulings during the six-year period did not uphold the right to access adequate housing. The report is the first output in its Evictions Research Series titled ‘Just and Equitable?’
Court appearance sheets revealed that only in four of 47 cases did both the eviction applicants and the evictees have legal representation, Seri found, according to the GroundUp report.
In 42 cases, only the applicants had legal representation.
Eviction orders were often granted without considering whether the households would be rendered homeless by the order, even though a 2017 Constitutional Court ruling holds that evictions that lead to homelessness are unlawful.
The researchers found that 41 of the evictions ‘relate to the non-payment of a monthly rental as opposed to a building being unlawfully occupied from the onset’.
Mbekezeli Benjamin, research and advocacy officer at Judges Matter, said the report highlighted the need to train magistrates and other judicial officials on the application of the PIE Act.
‘Magistrate's Courts are an important part of our judicial system but they are under-researched. This report is useful in thinking about what happens in the Magistrate's Court and the challenges people face in the system,’ he said.
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.
