Court tells city to stop seizing people’s property
A group of homeless people have been granted a reprieve from the City of Tshwane’s “clean-up operations”.
Last month, officials from the city’s waste management and metro police departments went to Prince’s Park in the city centre and confiscated the personal property of the 24 park dwellers.
The park’s occupants lost valuable items, including ID books and cards‚ cellphones and clothing.
They were told to go to the Rosslyn dumping site‚ north of Pretoria, if they wanted their belongings.
The officials did the same at Burgers Park Lane in the city on the same day.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) helped the occupiers launch an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to interdict all clean-up operations.
Yesterday, when the matter was due to be argued in court, city manager Moeketsi Mosola filed an affidavit admitting that officials did remove people’s property.
He offered payment for what he referred to as the “distress caused” to the occupiers. This amounts to R1500 per person.
Mosola further said future “clean-up” operations within the city would be conducted in accordance with the law. This undertaking was made an order of court.
“This means that from today onwards, the city will no longer confiscate any person’s property without first informing the LHR‚” said Hlengiwe Mtshatsha, the LHR attorney.