Cape Town - After over a year’s stand-off at the High Court, Communicare has won its case for an eviction order against what were termed “building hijackers” at its Albatross unit in Thornton.
CEO of Communicare Anthea Houston said: “Communicare applied to the High Court for an order to have the occupants removed from the property and the apartments returned to our control.
“The issue has been pending in the court for more than a year and began long before South Africa went into lockdown. The court found the occupation of these units was illegal. The court issued an order giving the occupiers until December 14 to move out of the units in a dignified way, or to face an eviction by the Sheriff of the Court thereafter,” said Houston.
“While our tenants are generally honest law-abiding people, it has been disappointing to note that a few tenants, including Neville Petersen and Moerida Morat, have played leading roles in orchestrating these building hijackings. They have targeted certain properties, trying to capture vacant units, undergoing repairs or waiting for new tenants to move in.
“We are pleased the court could see that while the ringleaders claim to advocate for tenants’ rights, their actions tell a different story.”
Communicare community activist Colin Arendse said: “I don’t see why Communicare are jumping around celebrating just yet.
“It is my understanding the legal team for the Communicare tenant beneficiaries of Albatross social housing are studying the judgement with a view to taking further instructions to challenge the order.”
One of the tenants named by Communicare as playing a “leading role” in the hijackings Neville Petersen said: “While the court eviction case was being heard, we held a social housing street assembly outside the High Court where we adopted two memoranda. One was addressed to the Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and the other to Deputy Minister Social Development Hendrietta Zulu, who is part of an interdepartmental investigation into Communicare.”
“This will deepen the social housing crisis in the Western Cape and will worsen the poverty levels as many families are still struggling to financially recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Petersen.
Meanwhile Human Settlements MEC Tertuis Simmers said in a statement on Wednesday that the provincial rental housing tribunal was working through Communicare matters.
Back in September while addressing the Communicare matter and the rental housing tribunal’s use of technology to conduct its affairs, Simmers said: “Landlords must not evict tenants under the current Alert Level 2 as this is illegal, unless permission is granted by a court of law.
“Any citizen who is faced with eviction during this time must contact their local police station and seek assistance from them.”
This week, Simmers’s department said the Western Cape Rental Housing Tribunal’s (RHT) quarterly report, which covered 1 July 2020 and 30 September 2020, showed that the number of Communicare matters finalised or closed has increased from 156 at the end of June 2020 to 411 at the end of September 2020.
Further to this, of the 191 cases scheduled during this period, 88 were Communicare matters. Since Communicare cases were first registered at the RHT in July 2018 to date, 775 cases have been recorded. As 411 Communicare cases were closed, 307 are scheduled to be finalised through hearing proceedings, while 57 new Communicare complaints must be investigated.
Cape Argus