Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court has given a group of people claiming to be descendants of the Khoisan, who have illegally occupied seven District Six flats since Saturday, until 10am on Tuesday to vacate the properties.
The group consists of 15 families who say they belong to the Cochoqua clan, the original Khoisan people who lived in the area stretching from Table Bay to St Helena Bay.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the trustees of the District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust brought an application asking the court for an eviction order.
Advocate Paul Tredoux, representing the applicants, said in court that the group had to be evicted urgently because the flats they occupied were earmarked for District Six land claimants who were due to move in on June 22.
Tredoux said the group was also causing tension at the property because they had vandalised some of the doors by using a crowbar to gain access to the flats.
The order was served on the group on Sunday night and on Monday all parties met at the court where Judge Robert Henney granted the applicants an interim order in terms of section 5 of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998.
In granting the order, Judge Henney said the group had to vacate the property by 10am on Tuesday. They should come back to court on Thursday when they would be allowed to file opposing papers with the help of a lawyer.
“If the respondents do not vacate the property the sheriff of the court should take the necessary steps to effect the order,” he said.
Outside the court, Tania Kleinhans, co-founder of the Institute for the Restoration of the Aborigines of South Africa (Irasa), who is also one of the illegal occupants, said the court order was inhumane.
“Why would you grant an order to say we need to leave by 10am on Tuesday and then say we need to be back in court on Thursday? Why not let us stay until Thursday because we have nowhere to go at the moment? We are just going to have to squat in District Six,” Kleinhans said.
Another member of the group, Mac Halloway, said it was unfair that they were being chased off their ancestral land and not given a fair chance to state their case.
Bishop Gail Lawrence, president of the Aboriginal Council of Churches said she had come to court to support the Khoisan people.
Lawrence said the interim order had worked in favour of the group because they were not asked to vacate the property immediately.
“It worked in their favour that the judge is allowing them to stay there. This will give them enough time to find legal representatives and to organise themselves better and also find time to regroup.”
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