Judges rebuke city over pandemic evictions
The Western Cape High Court has ruled that the City of Cape Town wrongly applied the remedy of ‘counter spoliation’ when it demolished shacks and evicted families from several informal settlements during the Covid-19 lockdown.
GroundUp reports that Judges Vincent Saldanha, Mokgoatji Dolamo and Hayley Slingers stated that when correctly interpreted and applied, counter spoliation was neither unconstitutional nor invalid.
But the city was incorrect in its interpretation and application of counter spoliation when it used this to evict people and demolish their shelters, both occupied and unoccupied.
The judges also ruled that the city’s conduct in demolishing and evicting Bongani Qolani from a shack he occupied at Empolweni on 1 June 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, was unlawful and unconstitutional.
It was this incident which sparked the application before the judges.
The main applicant was the Human Rights Commission, but others, including the EFF and Abahlali BaseMjondolo, joined in.
The case was first argued before two judges, but they could not reach consensus. A new panel of three judges was then appointed to preside.
In the ruling handed down on Friday, the judges said the image of Qolani, naked and in full glare of the public and social media, being forcefully dragged out of his informal structure by municipal officials, had been likened to the brutal forced removals under apartheid.
The city said it is considering its options.
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.
