SANDF attitude given a blasting

Military slapped with punitive costs order

WHILE the saga of the Marievale army base outside Nigel drags on, the taxpayer has to dig deeper to foot the legal bills of the SANDF after it lost several applications.

In the latest round, the SANDF and Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula applied in vain for leave to appeal the latest judgment by the high court in Pretoria.

In his previous judgment, Judge Norman Davis set out in no uncertain terms that the SANDF had to allocate accommodation on the base for the civilians who were evicted illegally.

The SANDF maintained all along that it did try to accommodate the ousted residents, who are represented by Lawyers for Human Rights.

But the judge frowned on this in this latest judgment. He questioned how it wanted to appeal his judgment, yet maintained that it wanted to assist the people.

About 355 people were illegally evicted from the military base more than a year ago. The families were forced out of their homes by armed soldiers. Some said they had a gun pointed at them. Many had lived on the base for years.

While it is not disputed that the base is meant for army personnel, the civilians were allowed to stay there for decades. They thus established rights in terms of the law and could not be thrown out without an eviction order.

The SANDF never applied for a formal eviction order.

In the opening to his latest judgment, Judge Davis said this was another case where organs of state had allowed a situation to develop to a point where a court had to step in to address issues concerning the social well-being and dignity of people.

“This is still the case, despite previous orders issued by this court.”

The judge said the chief of the army, in papers filed in the past, conceded that due to “an oversight” a situation had developed over the past decade where civilians were allowed to occupy parts of the base for residential purposes.

While they were illegal occupiers in terms of the law, the SANDF, rather than following the legal processes, unlawfully and forcibly evicted them. This was done under the guise of a military operation, the judge said.

The court in May last year ruled that their eviction was unlawful until such time as the SANDF followed due process of law.

The judge meanwhile ordered that the residents be allowed to move back to the homes they had previously occupied. But the SANDF said it had already allocated most of the homes to its staff. The judge ordered that alternative, adequate accommodation be made available to them.

Despite this order they were not allowed back on the base, and in September last year the residents again turned to court to hold the SANDF in contempt.

In light of the SANDF and minister’s undertaking that they would assist the residents, the judge said he was “surprised and astounded” by the latest leave to appeal application.

He slapped them with a punitive costs order and said the SANDF showed “absolute lack of any attempt” to comply with his May order.