Court rules against Athlone Stadium occupiers in fight with City of Cape Town

Published Jun 24, 2019

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Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court has ruled in favour of the City, and dismissed the application of an interdict brought by five occupiers of Athlone Stadium.

The five applicants brought an urgent application to try to prevent the City of Cape Town evicting them or locking them out from the stadium suites that they have converted to offices, said Kelcy le Keur, the City’s executive director for economic opportunities and asset management.

Le Keur said, following the applicants’ unsuccessful court action, three occupants decided to vacate the premises while the others have advised the City of their intention to vacate.

“The implications of non-compliance (ie shutting down stadium) and impact on the broader community was highlighted in every engagement with the occupants, including the administrative arm of the South African Football Association (SAFA) Cape Town.

“The refusal of a few occupants to comply with the regulations led to the shutdown of the facility on Thursday,” Le Keur said.

Last month, the City said the stadium would be closed for annual pitch maintenance and other general work from May 15 to August 15 to ensure the stadium’s readiness for the soccer season in August.

In court papers, the City’s acting director of strategic assets, Faried Shariff, said: “The east stand, where the applicants are situated, provides seating for 8100 spectators. The spectator-capacity for Athlone Stadium is about 23200. If these applicants do not vacate the premises by the end of today (Wednesday), the grading certificate will be revoked, reducing the spectator-capacity from 23200 to about 16000.

“The fact that the City cannot use the east stand means that it loses about one third of its capacity,” Shariff said.

The regulations require that each stadium be certified that the venue is safe, with a grading certificate.

Wayne Neitz, representing the disgruntled occupants, said: “This has a very bad effect on us. We had to call off our major competition, because our players couldn’t access the stadium. This also has dire financial consequences for us, because people are getting paid to play and they can’t.

“We will be try to engage the City again.”

@MarvinCharles17

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Cape Argus

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City of Cape Town