The City of Joburg’s move to forcefully evict tenants from a residential building,
that it declared uninhabitable and a fire risk, has been dealt a blow.
Dragged to the South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), a litigation centre, the metro and property owner agreed to reverse the eviction. The parties settled out of court.
Joburg Metro Police Department and “volunteer” South African Police Service officers descended on Salisbury Claims building three weeks ago and evicted tenants from apartments.
According to court papers, these armed evicters kicked down and broke doors, intimidated tenants and took their cellphones, and demanded money from those who failed to produce identity documents.
Some days before the eviction, a City of Joburg environmental health official put up notices inside the building saying it was not compliant with emergency by-laws.
The metro declared Salisbury, also known as City Hive, uninhabitable and a fire risk in 2011. It evicted residents at the time too.
Many of the tenants evicted three weeks ago were “forced to sleep outside of the property since their dispossession and eviction”, as Simangele Sibanda, one of them explained.
A large portion of the tenants are poor and unemployed, but do piece jobs to afford the monthly rent varying between R1250 and R1650.
According to the out-of-court settlement, which was made an order of the court, Teeny Fashions must allow evicted tenants to return to the building within 48 hours.
Teeny Fashions would return tenants to “habitable and dignified dwellings that are equal to or in better condition than the dwellings from which they were evicted”.
The property owner would reconnect water and electricity with immediate effect.
As a cherry on top for the tenants, they will not pay rent until end of January 2018 “as part of a full and final settlement in any civil action against Teeny Fashions pursuant to the (eviction)”.
The city was ordered to “refrain from threatening and/or intimidating” Salisbury’s tenants.
Florencia Belvedere, an LHR attorney, said the settlement is a victory against unlawful eviction.
“It’s important because we’re living in a period in South Africa where we hear a number of government officials threatening people that they’ll kick them out of buildings,” Belvedere told The Star.
“Our client involved the most vulnerable of people in society. A significant number of them are visually impaired. They are also paying tenants of this building.”