Durban - Two protesters were injured as dozens of residents at River View low cost flats tried to resist eviction on Monday morning after more than two years of litigation after the housing estate had been “hijacked”.
The injured - a woman and a man - suffered burn wounds to their backs. It is thought that their clothing caught fire when police used a water cannon to clear burning tyres, which had been used to barricade the one entrance.
The 232 respondents, and “any other person who occupies the immovable property”, had been ordered to leave by February 28 this year. Their application for leave to appeal was denied by the Constitutional Court in August, and owners, non-profit organisation Sohco, had agreed to postpone the eviction and give people time to leave voluntarily.
The R75 million social housing project, which has 330 two-bedroomed units, had said in court papers that the estate had been hijacked by gangsters who were knocking down walls, chasing out lawful tenants and taking rent from others. This had been denied by the respondents, who claimed they had been duped into paying higher rentals. The judge found that the residents had defied a finding by the KZN Rental Housing Tribunal to pay rent and had withheld rent in an attempt to reduce rentals.
Over 50 policemen, including SAPS’ public order policing unit and eThekwini Metro Police officers, were part of the operation to ensure the safe execution of a court order.
More than 50 private security guards were deployed to carry out the evictions and secure the area afterwards.
Many of the protesters wore ANC T-shirts, and ANC banner was flying and songs were sung in support of the organisation and its president, Jacob Zuma
The residents at the flats have been refusing to pay rent - some from as far back as 3 years ago.
“It's deeply regrettable that we were left with no alternative, if we were to protect our investment and continue to provide the kind of quality, reasonably priced rental housing so badly needed in our country today,” said Sohco’s board.
“Without the rents, agreed to in advance by each tenant and tailored affordable to their household incomes, Sohco would be unable to repay its bank loans and would be forced to close down and sell the developments,” Sohco said in a statement.
“These claims (of buying the flats) were closely examined and rejected as baseless by the High Court and Constitutional Court, with both rulings giving Sohco the go-ahead to evict the illegal tenants.
Ward 29 councillor Bhekisisa Mngadi who rushed to the scene said it was up to Human Settlements to attend to the complaints.
“As councillors we were not involved in allocating people to the units.”
He said the allocation process was flawed from the start with some of people being allocated despite it being known that they could not afford.
“Some of these people are now working. Where are they supposed to go? These are our people not dogs,” he said
Lieutenant Christopher Sibiya said the police were there to ensure that the sheriff of the court was not hampered in carrying out the court order.
Sibiya said the eviction order was granted by the Supreme Court in Pietermaritzburg and was supposed to be executed on November 11. “However some considerations had to be made, for example, notices had to be put up to ensure that everybody is aware of the evictions”.
Residents lay down on the ground daring police to remove them. Negotiations between the police and the protest leaders were ongoing.
In September this year, tenants barricaded the entrance to the social housing complex with refuse and tyres to prevent their eviction.
They had been ordered to vacate the flats by September 1, but they refused on that day, locking the gates to prevent the officials from entering.
A spokesman for the provincial Human Settlements department, Mbulelo Baloyi, said the MEC Ravi Pillay had been trying to find a solution for the tenants and Sohco since February this year.
He said the Constitutional Court had upheld the previous rulings of the lower courts – which allowed the non-profit organisation to evict the tenants.
“We have embarked on a social facilitation process to make sure there is an orderly execution of the court judgment, as the department, we cannot be seen to undermining the Constitutional Court judgment,” he said.
Baloyi said the department profiled all 320 families earlier this month, and it was found that most of the families did not meet the requirements to live at River View, as they earned too much.
To qualify for social housing, the owner of the lease must earn between R3 500 and R7 500, he said. He said the leaser was obligated to move out once they earned more than R7 500.
Baloyi said the investigation found that most of the current tenants were not the same as the ones listed in Sohco documents. However, some families had been paying their rental to Sohco, but they too would be evicted.
He said Sohco had a responsibility to honour their contractual agreement with these families, as they had not been in breach with their lease agreements. The development was privately owned by Sohco, but subsidised by government to the tune of R320 000 per unit, considerably more than the R80 000 provisioned in RDP homes.
He said the department was in talks with the eThekwini Municipality to find a temporary solution in placing the tenants.
Sohco said in its statement that during 2009 a group of ring leaders encouraged others in the 330-unit development to stop paying rent.
Over time, legal rent-paying tenants were ejected from the complex, as were Sohco staff, and armed intimidation levels made the development a no-go zone for all legitimate personnel. According to reports, a number of tenants have been barred from moving out of the complex by the hijackers.
“After exhausting all other avenues, Sohco was left with no option but to institute eviction proceedings through the courts. Eviction orders were granted after the full legal process had been followed. The evictions were due to start today.
“It is unfortunate that such a large scale security presence was required today,” said the Sohco board.
“But given the levels of intimidation, violence and vandalism that have marked this dispute, it would have been remiss of us not to take precautions to protect our assets and law abiding people who want to pay to be tenants at River View.”
It said that during the illegal occupation of the housing estate, Sohco staff and paying tenants have received threats, a forged petition was circulated, emergency and maintenance crews obstructed from entering the estate and an occupant was stabbed to death.
Daily News