Durban - Frustrated with the eThekwini Municipality for ignoring two court orders for the eviction of illegal tenants on a piece of land in Pinetown, a property owners’ association is in a bid to have municipal bosses jailed for contempt of court.
The Mahogony Ridge 2 Property Owners’ Association has called for the city manager or the head of the Human Settlements Department to be jailed and for the municipality to pay it R75 000 a month until it complies with the court orders.
“The message that is being sent is that the city of Durban ignores court orders while innocent land owners must incur expenses and have their property rights rendered nugatory (of little or no consequence),” read the affidavit of Glen Dames, the association’s general secretary, in reference to the city “wilfully” disregarding the second eviction order.
In response, Mkhomazi Sibisi, the city’s Human Settlement’s senior manager, conceded that the city could be criticised for “moving too slowly” and said they had been trying to meet the requirements of the court order.
He disputed the city’s conduct had been wilful and pointed out that the court order allowed only 32 days to complete construction of wood and corrugated iron structures on the new site to relocate and house the illegal tenants.
On Friday, Durban High Court Judge Rashid Vahed granted an order for the city to begin construction of these structures on Tuesday; for the local police to provide security during the eviction process; and for police to patrol the construction site.
According to Dames’s affidavit, Judge Themba Sishi granted the first eviction order in November 2012.
He said the city failed to comply with it by failing to erect these structures.
The association began contempt proceedings in December 2014, which the city opposed and had launched a counter-application to vary the terms of the first eviction order, which were dismissed.
In February this year, Judge Mahendra Chetty granted a second eviction order calling for the city to erect these structures by no later than March 24.
Dames said the city failed to comply with this, and that it ignored all the correspondence from the association’s attorney.
Mahogany Ridge 2 Industrial Park was established in the 1990s. Some of the land was transferred to the association and a portion of this land is the subject matter of the court application.
According to the association, the land was intended to be a conservancy area and is a “green lung” within the natural township itself.
This industrial park neighbours the residential township, Emaus.
The municipality had offered to relocate the illegal tenants to Emaus and to construct wooden and iron corrugated structures on concrete platforms for them.
The municipality had also proposed that the invoices for the materials bought for construction be provided to the association, which was willing to help pay.
Dames said they made the offer in 2012 to help expedite the process “and now finds itself about four years down the track without a resolution to this issue”.
He argued that they had incurred costs over the years to protect this property - including hiring security - and it had become a financial burden on all its members.
He said its employees and the security guards had been threatened with pangas, knobkieries and knives and told the community would “sort them out” if they interfered with the erection of illegal dwellings.
Sibisi said he and the head of housing, Beryl Mphakathi, had submitted reports to the city manager and relevant committees on this issue and had been trying to expedite matters.
He said the estimated cost to construct these wooden and iron structures was R400 000.
Further, he said the city had to advertise the construction tender and, because of the risk of being in contempt of the court order, had shortened the advertised period to 48 hours.
Sibisi said the advert was published on the day the contempt of court papers were served on the city.
On April 16, he said, the contractor and his staff were on site to start clearing, but were threatened by the local community who apparently told the city they had no authority to build on their land.
Sibisi apologised to the court for breaching the court order and conceded the city was liable to pay the association’s costs.
The matter was adjourned until next month.
Daily News