Durban - The owner of a hijacked Durban building is preparing a "substantial" damages claim against the eThekwini Municipality which continues to ignore high court orders that it provide alternative accommodation for the illegal occupants.
"The constant ignoring of these orders by both the city and those occupying the building makes a mockery of our justice system. This dispute has been in and out of the courts for four years without any finality in sight," said Leif Lunde, the attorney acting for Mahomed Iqbal Suliman, whose trust owns the Umgeni Road property.
"My client is expected to continue paying rates and to house the unlawful occupiers for no compensation and we are now formulating a damages claim against the city for its failure to comply with its constitutional obligations," he said.
Suliman's attempts to evict the squatters through the high court have been met with resistance since 2012 when he first obtained an ejectment order.
In papers before the court, he said the trust had leased the building to a Mr R Khan who, in turn, had leased off portions to the unlawful occupiers.
The Khan lease had expired and the building had been condemned as uninhabitable by virtually every city department.
The city, in opposing the evictions, has constantly asked for time, saying it has a housing backlog of 415 000 households and it could take 40 years to eradicate this.
Since then three Durban high court judges have issued orders setting dates by when the city had to comply. One, granted in August last year, set April 30 this year as the deadline.
But again, there was no compliance.
A further order was granted in early May - without Suliman's consent - again staying the ejectment and setting dates between May and August by when the city had to provide alternative accommodation.
But it still has not. And now the occupiers have launched a fresh application to stay the warrant of ejectment.
This, Lunde says, is indicative of a modus operandi "to keep going back to court and appealing to different Judges to give them more time".
In a affidavit filed last week, city human settlements manager Mkhomazi Sibisi said a transit camp in Isipingo had been identified, but the local community had blocked the move.
He approached the local ANC region for assistance but did not get a response.
Sibisi said he had then identified an area in Cottonlands and had obtained emergency funding to hire contractors to build structures for the 96 families.
This would take eight weeks, he said, pleading for more time.
But Suliman is vehemently against the city's being given any further indulgences and, in his opposing affidavit, has put up a detailed chronology of the "harrowing history" of the matter which, he says, demonstrates the city's "complete and blatant disregard" of the court orders and of its constitutional duties.
"The city cites financial constraints as one of the issues … this is ludicrous in light of the huge losses I am incurring," he said.
The squatters had reneged on an undertaking that they would voluntarily leave in May this year and now contend that because they have been living there for 10 years, they have some right to occupation.
"They are unlawful occupiers … they cannot suggest that the trust is obliged to continue to house them.
"That is simply ludicrous," Suliman said.
His lawyers will make application this week for the matter to be heard as a matter of urgency.
The Mercury