In 1995, Christina van Rooyen bought vegetables on credit for R200. Six years later the debt nearly cost her the only house she ever owned.
On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court was to examine the constitutionality of a section of the Magistrate's Court Act, which was used to take her home away.
In general, the section allows creditors to sell the houses of those who owe them money to settle petty debts.
The legal team for Van Rooyen and another woman, Maggie Jaftha, say this is a bad and unconstitutional law.
| 'I live off the money which my sons sometimes give me' |
Even the woman to whom she owed the money said she would never have wanted Van Rooyen to lose her R15 000 house for the price of a bag of groceries.
But the minister of justice's legal team says there is nothing wrong with the law, although in this case the rules were broken. They will ask that Markotter Attorneys, in Prince Albert in the Eastern Cape, be investigated criminally and by the Law Society.
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Markotter have been identified as having taken similar action in several debt-related cases for creditors, and then buying up defaulters' homes for a song when they are auctioned.
This is Van Rooyen's story as she told it in papers before court:
"I am 61. I have no work. I live at 49 Hoek Street, Prince Albert. On August 17, 2001 my house was sold by the sheriff of Prince Albert to pay a debt owed by me to Catherine Goliath."
"I have never been to school. I cannot read or write. My house was provided by the state to my late husband in early 1997. It was the first proper home in which I, my husband and my children had ever lived."
"My husband died on October 3, 1997. When he died, the house at 49 Hoek Street became mine."
"I have three children. My two sons have no work and stay with me. My daughter lives with her aunt. There is very little work in Prince Albert..."
"From time to time I have worked as a char, but since 1997 I have not been able to find any work at all. I live off the money which my sons sometimes give me when they are able to find work."
"If I and my two sons have to move out we will have nowhere to go. We will have to try and... live there as squatters, if we can find the material to build a shack."
"I am not very young, and if I was forced to live in a shack, particularly in the cold winters in Prince Albert, my health would suffer. I already suffer from tuberculosis."
She said that in 1995 she bought vegetables from Goliath but did not have the money to pay for them.
"Any money I ever received since, I needed to keep myself and my family alive. We often do no have money for food and are often hungry."
Van Rooyen said she knew Goliath had handed her over to Markotter Attorneys, the only legal firm in the town.
"When the sheriff brought me the papers, I did understand they had something to do with the case and the money I owed, but nothing more than that."
"I know nothing of the law or the courts. I have no education, I do not know what a summons is or what a default judgment is or what an execution of debt is."
Van Rooyen said that shortly before her house was sold by public auction, she asked Cape Town attorney Matthew Walton to stop the sale or have it cancelled.
"My house was bought by Jacobus Stoltz for R1 000. I was there at the auction."
According to court papers, Goliath said she had not instructed Markotter Attorneys to auction the house.
Thanks to Walton, who has not charged for his services, Van Rooyen now has her home back.
- This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on May 11, 2004
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