Legal centre accuses City of Cape Town of ‘obfuscating its wrongdoing’ over land evictions

File picture: Ayanda Ndamane African News Agency (ANA)

File picture: Ayanda Ndamane African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jul 27, 2020

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Cape Town – The Legal Resource Centre (LRC) has set the record straight over the City’s comments made in the battle over evictions in the metro.

The matter, involving the SA Human Rights Commission and Bulelani Qolani, who want to interdict the City from carrying out anti-land invasion operations during the lockdown, was set to be heard on Friday, but the presiding judge found, due to the nature of the application and the complexities of the case, that two judges should be appointed to hear the matter. It has been postponed to August 20.

After the postponement in the Western Cape High Court, mayor Dan Plato said: “The application sought the voiding of all existing court orders explicitly permitting the City to protect specific sites from illegal invasion using counter-spoliation.

“If the applicants obtain this relief, it would be almost impossible for landowners to protect their property from unlawful occupation and to prevent people from establishing homes, albeit unlawfully, on the property of others.

“It is clear that many thousands of law-abiding residents are silently bearing the severe impact of land invasions due to the unlawful actions of a relatively small group of people.”

The LRC, however, said: “It must be categorically stated that neither the LRC nor our clients seek an order to prevent the City of Cape Town, or any landowner, from thwarting the illegal occupation of their property.

“The city’s allegations or insinuations that the LRC incites or condones unlawful conduct are malicious and downright contemptuous.

“The City’s press release further insinuates that the LRC is somehow a litigant in these proceedings; once again these statements are false and misleading.

“The City’s strategy seems crystal clear in that they choose to obfuscate their own wrongdoing and rather attack human rights defenders who seek to hold them accountable.”

Cape Times

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