Hangberg residents want city fined for R100k or Cape mayor jailed for 90 days

Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato File photo: Ayanda Ndamane / African News Agency (ANA)

Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato File photo: Ayanda Ndamane / African News Agency (ANA)

Published Oct 22, 2019

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Cape Town - Hangberg residents have filed papers in the Western Cape High Court, seeking an order to compel the City of Cape Town to pay a fine of R100 000 or that mayor Dan Plato be held in prison for 90 days.

Lee Smith, one of the Hangberg residents, states in his founding affidavit that the litigation process emanates from the City’s failure to comply with a Peace Accord agreed upon in September 2010, which became a high court order in 2011.

In terms of the accord, a piece of land in Hangberg was set aside for housing development.

Disgruntled residents claim that the City was in breach of the order when they started to build an electricity depot on the land. Smith and other residents then approached the court for an urgent interdict against the City earlier this month.

But Judge Nathan Erasmus did not issue the interdict, because their application did not meet the court requirements and he advised the residents to consult a lawyer to file amended papers.

According to Smith, the dire need for housing in the area saw wendy houses and shacks erected on City land, which were later demolished by the City. This led to a wave of violent protests in the area, and after the protest in 2010 known as the “Battle of Hangberg” in which 62 people were arrested and 18 injured, the peace accord was signed by the peace and media forum, the City, the provincial government and SANParks in 2011.

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