EFF welcomes the SCA’s dismissal of the City of Cape Town’s appeal of the ruling on the eviction of Bulelani Qolani and land occupants
11 July 2024
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) welcomes the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) decisive dismissal of the City of Cape Town's bid to appeal the Western Court High Court Judgement, in which the court found that the removal of land occupants during COVID-19 was unlawful, unconstitutional and inhumane.
At the peak of COVID-19 in 2020, the racist City of Cape Town which presides over the most racially segregated and unequal metropolitan in the country sent its Anti-Land Invasion Unit to remove residents in Khayelitsha. The homes of the residents in Empolweni, Emfuleni, and Hangberg were demolished including all their belongings for those who may not have been home.
The most dehumanised victim of this illegal eviction was Bulelani Qolani who was dragged out of his residence naked, so that the DA-led City of Cape Town could execute evictions that bore a painful resemblance to Apartheid era evictions.
This eviction would have been inhumane in any context, but the fact that it occurred during a state of national disaster and a global pandemic, was proof of the little regard the DA-led City of Cape Town has for black life and the rule of law.
The EFF and others took the City of Cape Town to court and won the case, making a huge victory for constitutionalism and human rights. The Western Cape High Court correctly found that the City's defence of counter-spoliation was not applicable, and that this does not stand as a legal argument for evicting people from their homes and destroying their homes without a court order, on the basis that individuals were no longer there.
Importantly, the court found that counter-spoliation cannot be used against people who enter land with an intention to erect homes, as these people are involved in peaceful and undisturbed possession, and in such instances neither the state or private land owners can invoke counter-spoliation. This meant that the City of Cape Town's entire case dwindled into failure.
The DA-led City of Cape Town, true to its racist form has sought to appeal a ruling that found that thy acted unconstitutionally, and have been dismissed with costs by the SCA.
The EFF welcomes this judgment and will always remain on the side of Africans, and defend them from white supremacists who are now in government with the former liberation movement. The land remains central to the freedom of our people, and the EFF will always champion its return to its rightful owners.
Issued by Leigh-Ann Mathys, National Spokesperson, EFF, 11 July 2024
