KZN High Court (Durban) Judge Robin Mossop, faced with an application which could see a mother and her three young children on the streets, has ruled the mother is entitled to assistance in her ‘moment of need’ from the entity burdened to provide that assistance.

The Mercury reports Transnet wants to evict her from a home, which is owned by the state. Mossop did not direct his words to Transnet – which is entitled to evict her – but to the eThekwini Municipality.

While the municipality was cited a respondent in the application brought by Transnet to evict the family, the municipality simply ignored the application and did not pitch at court.

Mosspop noted that the municipality has offered no assistance to the court whatsoever.

‘The first respondent (the mother) remains a member of our community and is entitled to be respected and to have her dignity preserved. She is not in her current position by design or through choice. She is doing her best to provide for her family and to keep them intact and safe,’ the judge said.

He said it cannot be in the interests of justice that she and her family be rendered homeless.

‘That would simply be solving one problem by creating another problem. The third respondent (the municipality), through its indifference to her plight, appears to regard her as a non-person, unworthy of its assistance. She is not that,’ Mossop said.

He gave the municipality until 1 June to ‘redeem itself,’ to file a report to court and explain how it would resolve this ‘vexing social issue’ by means of supplying the family with alternative accommodation.

Full report in The Mercury

Judgment