Concourt judgment to cause land invasion havoc

LAND invaders are set to wreak havoc because the province and the eThekwini Municipality lack the legal clout to stamp out invasions.

In a recent application before the high court, the city said it had halted the tide of invasions after an interim high court order, granted in 2013, allowed the provincial government to stop invasions on all its properties.

The order allowed for action against invaders without provisions of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act being invoked.

But it was criticised by the Constitutional Court last year and set aside by Judge Fikile Mokgohloa in August this year as it gave the government unfettered power to evict people, and she said the process had to be governed by the act.

The act stipulates the steps that must be taken before people may be evicted, including in some cases providing alternative accommodation.

The municipality said there was no blanket order in place to stop land invasions in the province. As a result it had to bring applications as invasions occurred. But if invaders got on to the land and settled, they were then considered to be occupiers and the act came into play.

The case the city had brought to court involved invaders in Puntans Hill who had been trying to invade private and municipal-owned property since the start of the month.

Municipal legal adviser Sazi Ngubo said in an affidavit that the first invasion attempt was prevented by the metro police, SAPS and the land invasion unit.

He said the police and land invasion officials then patrolled the area but were allegedly shot at by people hiding in the bush.

Ngubo said invaders then tried to build structures on municipal land in the area and the city obtained an interim interdict to stop people entering the land on November 4.

But he said the interim order appeared to have been ignored and the invaders were not afraid to engage violently with police and land invasion officials.

Ngubo said the invaders wanted to “queue jump” by invading vacant land and settling on it, which would force the department to provide them with accommodation to the exclusion of registered beneficiaries who were waiting for housing.

There were registered beneficiaries at Puntans Hill.

The matter will be back in court next month.