Cape Town - Hundreds of Cape Flats families will be spending Christmas in the Delft houses they have occupied, after the Cape High Court on Monday ordered a temporary halt to their eviction.
The order was made in chambers by Judge Deon Van Zyl at 17:00 as many of the families, with small children, waited anxiously outside the court.
Police and a private security company earlier in the day recommenced evicting families from the houses, which are earmarked for residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement who cannot be accommodated there when the settlement is upgraded.
The application for an urgent interdict was brought on behalf of the families by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.
It was sought on the grounds that the evictions were being carried out illegally on the basis of an eviction order granted to the City of Cape Town on October last year, against other people.
Emerging from the court at 17:15 campaign chairperson Ashraf Cassiem was greeted with shouts of joy when he announced they had won a respite.
No more evictions till January 3
He said state-owned developer Thubelisha Homes, which is upgrading Joe Slovo as part of the N2 Gateway project, had asked Van Zyl for a fresh eviction order, but the Judge had refused it.
"The order is this," he said. "As of today (Monday) 17:00, which is the time we agreed, there will be no evictions until we get back in court on the third of January, where the court will make a final decision."
He said the order covered everyone who had signed a confirmatory affidavit for the court hearing.
Ward councillor for the Delft area Frank Martin said that people in backyard rooms, overcrowded homes or shacks in the Delft and Belhar areas had been on council waiting lists for an average 25 years.
"We're sitting with elderly people, ages that range from 60 up to 83 years of age," he said.
"All these years they've never been accommodated, they've never received a subsidy from government."
In contrast, he said, there were "kids" of 18 years from Joe Slovo, without any dependants, who had been allocated new homes at Delft.
Many of the Joe Slovo residents had never appeared on a waiting list.
Martin was arrested last week for allegedly encouraging people to move into the new homes.
One of the occupants, a woman who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals from the authorities, said her neighbours had called to tell her the police were evicting people.
"The police are removing our furniture, they're tramping our doors open by force, removing all the people's stuff outside the houses," she said.
"They're taking the stuff and go dump it somewhere else [sic]... they've got no right to tramp doors open and remove stuff without permission."
The SA Police Service and the city metro police, plus a security firm, have been evicting people since last week.
Cassiem said about 700 families were represented in the application.
The High Court earlier this month reserved judgment on a bid by the Joe Slovo residents themselves to block their own looming forced removal to Delft. - SAPA
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