A DURBAN judge, faced with an application which could see a mother and her three young children on the streets, claims she is entitled to assistance in her ‘moment of need’ from the organisation burdened to provide that assistance.
The mother and her her family have not been named.
Transnet, the owner of South Africa’s railway, ports and pipelines infrastructure, wants to evict her from the home owned by the State.
Judge Robin Mossop, sitting in the Durban High Court, did not direct these words to Transnet, who is entitled to evict her, but to the eThekwini Municipality.
While the municipality was cited as a respondent in the application brought by Transnet to evict the family, the municipality simply ignored the application and did not pitch at court.
Judge Mosspop noted that the municipality has offered no assistance to this court whatsoever.
“The first respondent (the mother) remains a member of our community and is entitled to be respected and to have her dignity preserved. She is not in her current position by design or through choice. She is doing her best to provide for her family and to keep them intact and safe,” the judge said.
He said it cannot be in the interests of justice that she and her family be rendered homeless.
“That would simply be solving one problem by creating another problem. The third respondent (the municipality), through its indifference to her plight, appears to regard her as a non-person, unworthy of its assistance. She is not that,” Judge Mossop said.
He gave the municipality until June 1 to “redeem itself,” to file a report to court and explain how it will resolve this “vexing social issue” by means of supplying the family with alternative accommodation.
The jobless mother, her three small daughters and her father are presently living in a Transnet house. These houses are normally rented out by Transnet to its employees and they are not allowed to sublet it.
But the house was submitted to this family by a former Transnet worker. The rail agency got wind of this and wanted to evict the family, as they wanted to let the property to one of their workers.
Judge Mossop said Transnet, as the owner of the property, is not legally required to provide the family with any form of housing. While it is a state-owned company and it is an organ of state, it is not “the State” and the renting out of immovable property is not its core business function.
Transnet has meanwhile tried since 2015 tried to negotiate with the mother to vacate the property. She has refused.
Transnet initially attempted to regularise her occupation by requiring her to sign a lease agreement, but the mother balked at the idea. It then offered her alternative accommodation, which was also rejected.
She later said that she would be willing to move to a property next door, on the condition that it was renovated by Transnet. The rail company, however, said that it did not have the funds available to renovate that property and consequently did not agree with this proposal.
The mother meanwhile admitted that a portion of the property was sublet to her by the Transnet worker and that when he moved out, she took over the entire property.
She claimed that she was subsequently told by Transnet’s representatives to stop making any payments and was told that she could remain on the property “free of charge” until a formal lease was concluded.
Judge Mossop said this is unlikely, especially as the mother has for the past eight years, lived there totally rent free. The mother also told the court that she battles to make ends meet, as the family are dependent on social grants.
It is clear that the family had to move, but he questioned where they would go if he simply ordered their eviction.
Judge Mossop said subsidised housing appears to be their only hope and the municipality has such housing schemes.
Pretoria News