City opposes SAHRC and EFF bid for the right to protect property to be declared unlawful
20 August 2020
The City of Cape Town is today opposing the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) court application for right to protect property from unlawful occupation to be declared unlawful.
Interim relief is being argued today, with the SAHRC specifically asking the courts for an interdict preventing landowners from removing empty, unoccupied structures as a means of protecting property from invasion. The application also seeks the voiding of all existing court orders explicitly permitting the City to protect specific sites from illegal invasion. The implications for communities and landowners are pronounced.
Further, the SAHRC is asking the court to declare unlawful the well-established common law principle of ‘counter-spoliation’, which permits landowners to protect their property against the erection of illegal structures.
The City is arguing that it would be almost impossible for landowners to protect their property from unlawful occupation and to prevent people from establishing homes, albeit unlawfully, on the property of others if the applicants obtain the relief being sought from the Western Cape High Court.
The SAHRC and EFF are aiming to set a dangerous precedent for all landowners that goes far beyond what the Constitution and Prevention of Illegal Evictions (PIE) Act allow.
Court rolls will be flooded with applications by landowners, both private and public, seeking urgent and immediate determinations of whether or not a particular structure is occupied and subject to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act requirement of an eviction order.
Practically, by the time such matters come to Court, the property in question would have been lost to illegal occupation. People who cannot afford to approach the courts would simply lose their land to illegal invasions in most instances.
The interim relief sought would effectively interdict the City from taking any steps to prevent unlawful land occupations on City land for an indefinite period - probably months, if not years.
If successful, the SAHRC’s application – joined by the EFF – could officially open the floodgates on illegal land invasions, leading to a breakdown in law and order.
Public land earmarked for housing, healthcare, schools, transport, basic services would be permanently lost to unlawful land occupations with devastating consequences.
It could be that the extent of unlawful land occupation on public land would be so extensive to the point of undermining all the State’s housing plans and upgrading of informal settlement programmes, as there would be no means of protecting any land from occupation. Currently already, R1,3 billion worth of housing projects are under threat from the large-scale orchestrated land invasions we have seen over the recent months. Attempts are ongoing. The City does not have infinite resources and simply cannot cater to newly formed unplanned settlements at the expense of planned and existing needs.
The City is today standing up for all law-abiding residents in opposing this application.
Issued by Media Office, City of Cape Town, 20 August 2020
