[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Showdown at Joe Slovo settlement

[Patrick Bond]

www.mg.co.za

National
Relocation or forced removal?
Pearlie Joubert
22 December 2007 11:59

Judge President John Hlophe will rule soon on what has become the 
hottest housing issue in Cape Town -- whether to give government the 
go-ahead to forcibly remove 20 000 Joe Slovo residents to Delft.

The minister of housing, Lindiwe Sisulu, asked the courts to pave the 
way for the eviction of the residents.

The community, which has occupied the land for 15 years, refuses to 
move. Some residents say they will move only if the government builds 
houses in Joe Slovo for at least 70% of them.

Last week Hlophe reserved judgement in the Cape High Court on the 
application brought by government and its housing agency, Thubelisha 
Homes, to evict the residents.

But an eviction schedule was tabled in court. It will start with 45 
families being moved to Delft on the January 28. Evictions will continue 
for 45 weeks.

Advocate Geoff Budlender, representing the residents, says this is “the 
most serious eviction case [he] ha[s] handled”.

Budlender says he cannot “remember another case in which government 
started the eviction of a settled community of 20 000 people where 
people have lived for as long as 15 years”.

The state claims the residents are illegally occupying land and should 
be removed under the Prevention of Illegal Evictions and Unlawful 
Occupation of Lands Act.

The community claims the state failed to show ownership of Joe Slovo -- 
no title deed was produced -- and, without proof of ownership, it cannot 
be forced out.

The community says it needed the help of the courts because the housing 
department and the provincial housing department, under MEC Richard 
Dyanti, promised residents that if they moved to Delft, houses would be 
built for them in Joe Slovo.

“This did not happen. Phase one of the N2 Gateway provided only one Joe 
Slovo resident with a house and there are about 2 000 families living 
here,” says community leader Manyenzeke Sopaqa.