CAPE TOWN:- Evictions can only take place with a court order.
The presence of city officials and law enforcement does not make an eviction legal, only a court order does.
The GOOD Party has received reports from residents of Cape Town’s rental housing and backyard dwellings in areas such as Uitsig, Athlone, Hanover Park, and Elsies River, stating that they are being forcibly removed from their homes without notice and threatened with arrest if they resist.
Evicted residents are not provided with alternative shelter as required by law. Many of them have nowhere else to go and will be forced to join the thousands of homeless people living on the streets of Cape Town. Providing temporary alternative accommodation to those the City evicts is not charity; it is the law.
The City may only evict a tenant who has breached the terms of their lease agreement and only with a valid court order. Furthermore, the eviction must be carried out by the Sheriff of the Court.
Anyone forcibly removed from their home by the City without a court order should immediately contact Legal Aid for assistance or reach out to GOOD representative Suzette Little at suzette.little@capetown.gov.za or via WhatsApp at 073 321 5036. Suzette Little has previously taken up such cases and will ensure that your matter is addressed by the relevant responsible official. The City is not above the law
Historic Bromwell Street Ruling Sets Precedent
The Constitutional Court’s ruling on Bromwell Street sets a legal precedent regarding evictions. The court ruled that the City of Cape Town must provide displaced Bromwell Street residents with temporary emergency accommodation as close as possible to their current homes. This judgment provides guidance to both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government on their duty to correct apartheid-era spatial planning.
This is a lesson both governments must take into account when addressing the future of the Woodstock Hospital (Cissie Gool House) and the Helen Bowden Nurses’ Home (Ahmad Kathrada House) and their occupants—whom the City and the Province plan to evict.
The City and the Province must engage meaningfully with the occupants and find a fair, dignified, and constitutionally compliant solution because the Constitutional Court’s message is clear:
Where people live matters now more than ever.
