Backyard dwellers prepare to fight eviction
RESIDENTS occupying the Rivergate informal settlement in Dunoon say they have approached legal representation to help them fight an eviction notice from the City.
The mostly Dunoon backyard dwellers moved to the area at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020.
Community activist Victoria Mqumbisa said: “We are over 550 families who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We could not pay rent because we were no longer working.
“We moved to a tent in Zwezwe in Dunoon but we had to leave because the area we lived in was flooded by the rain. We then decided to erect shacks on this land for better living conditions.”
Mqumbisa said they have been living in fear of being forcefully removed by law enforcement.
“We have received letters from the City chasing us away, we are distressed… we don't know if we leave here where we will go,” she said.
The people who erected shacks in the area said they received a notice from City lawyers last month instructing them to vacate the land within 21 days.
“We have approached a lawyer because the City is not telling us where to go. We have stayed on this land for 36 months; now they are chasing us out like dogs.
“We are also residents of Cape Town,” said Mqumbisa.
Deputy mayor and Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said the occupiers were there unlawfully.
He said the land houses endangered veld types such as Renoster veld and due to its significance to conservation, it will be incorporated with the bordering Table Bay Nature Reserve in future.
“During the Covid-19 lockdown period, the land was unlawfully occupied and there is an estimated 230 informal structures on site.
“The occupants have no access to services, including water and sanitation, and they are situated in a floodplain area, unsuited for habitation.
“The illegal occupiers had to vacate the land within 21 working days from the day the notices were served – thus, 21 days counting from March 22, meaning they had until April 11 to comply with the notice.”
He said residents have failed to vacate the land and therefore the City will launch formal eviction proceedings in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE).
Andrews said they had obtained an order from the Western Cape High Court interdicting any further unlawful occupation of the land.
“This order did not operate as an eviction order against the current unlawful occupants.
“The City is required to institute separate legal proceedings against those occupiers in terms of PIE,” Andrews said.
ANC chairperson of the Dunoon branch Andile Peter said evicting the residents would be a disaster.
“I don't believe in land grabs. However when the law enforcement have allowed people to occupy the land and keep quiet for so long and act after that is a cause for concern, irrespective of who owns the land,” said Peter.