Residents take MyCiTi fight to court

Plumstead residents facing eviction from council-owned houses to make way for a MyCiTi service at a candlelight vigil earlier this year. File photo: Ross Jansen

Plumstead residents facing eviction from council-owned houses to make way for a MyCiTi service at a candlelight vigil earlier this year. File photo: Ross Jansen

Published Apr 1, 2015

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Cape Town - Twenty-one of the Plumstead families facing eviction from council-owned houses to make way for the second phase of the MyCiTi service have lodged an urgent high court application for an interdict against the City of Cape Town, mayor Patricia de Lille, the city manager and mayoral committee member for transport for Cape Town, Brett Herron.

“We have been frustrated in our dealings with the city. There have been several requests for meetings with Herron, and even for the mayor to intervene. Memorandums have been dropped off (at the city) but Herron has not complied with the basic principles of public participation,” said Clive Muller, one of the applicants in the court appeal and a member of the South Road Families’ Association.

The motion, lodged at the Western Cape High Court last week, seeks an interdict preventing the city from enforcing its termination-of-lease notices, from evicting any of the affected tenants, and from demolishing any properties occupied by these tenants until there has been “compliance with the statutory requirements for public participation”.

Mayoral committee member for finance Ian Neilson confirmed that the application had been received. “The content of the application is being studied and the city will file the necessary responses after due regard and within the appropriate time limits.”

The application is set down for April 29, and the city has until Thursday to file its response.

Muller said: “The impression that we are getting is of a city that is working in reverse. The council demolished houses in December, before it went to full council in January for approval.”

The demolition had been approved “with stealth” at a meeting that excluded any opposition political parties. The DA was forced to adjourn January’s council meeting after the ANC refused to leave the chamber. Opposition parties were barred from attending the second meeting, and the demolition of the houses was approved without debate.

Muller said the city had already advertised tenders for Phase 2 of the MyCiTi project despite the lack of public participation.

“It is of concern to us that the city is operating outside of the law. So very reluctantly we have been forced to go the legal route.”

Herron refused to meet residents last month during an oversight visit by delegates from the National Council of Provinces. He said then the city had been “ambushed” as he was not informed that there would be a public meeting.

Muller said most of the 26 tenants who were served with termination-of-lease notices last year supported the court action.

The city offered alternative accommodation in Wynberg, Lakeside and Grassy Park to eight of the tenants in good financial standing. Neilson said on Tuesday that one tenant had accepted the city’s offer.

The other tenants have been living in uncertainty since their leases ended on January 31. South Road resident Edith Freel has been trying for days to get the city council to repair her wall, after a car crashed onto her property. She said the city refused because she is living there illegally.

Neilson said: “The city gave the tenant four months to vacate this property by January 31, 2015.”

He said the city had appointed attorneys to give effect to the notices to vacate the houses.

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Cape Argus

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