Judge orders eviction of Joe Slovo residents

The order, handed down by Judge President John Hlophe yesterday (Monday), followed an application by state-owned developer Thubelisha Homes, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Western Cape Minister of Housing Richard Dyantyi, says a report on the Legalbrief Today site. ‘The state is in no way attempting to re-enact the apartheid ghost of forced removals from the past,’ Hlophe said in his 51-page ruling. ‘This is not a mass eviction, but a strategic relocation, working in phases according to availability of temporary relocation areas and even with assistance for the moving of residents.’ He said the Joe Slovo residents would not be put on the streets to fend for themselves, but would be moved to much better accommodation at the expense of the state. Full report on the Legalbrief Today site Judgment

Residents say they will appeal against the order. Anti-Eviction Campaign co-ordinator Mzonke Poni said: ‘We really do not welcome the judgment because we are saying there’s no way a judge can issue an order to evict more than 20 000 people without considering the impact it will have on their livelihoods. What we know is, we are going to appeal against the judgment.’ Hlophe ordered the first 45 families to leave next week, followed by the others in batches to January next year, says a report on The Citizen site. He said the government was constitutionally obliged to realise the right of every person to access to adequate housing. Courts were obliged to ensure that institutions best equipped to make policy choices were not paralysed by ‘indiscriminate challenges’ to government socio-economic policies. Hlophe also dismissed a counter-application brought by the residents on the basis that they had a legitimate expectation that at least 70% of the new housing at Joe Slovo would go to residents of the settlement, and 30% to backyard dwellers from nearby Langa. Full report on The Citizen site