http://www.capetimes.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20091126221515537C758842
Guards demolish shacks
26 November 2009, 22:47
By Nompumelelo Magwaza
Residents of Mpola informal settlement at Marrianridge, near Pinetown, spent Thursday rebuilding and repairing their shacks.
This was after a group of armed municipal security guards had ransacked and demolished more than 20 shacks, leaving about 100 people homeless.
The guards were acting on the orders of ward councillor Derrick Dimba.
The residents said that the evictions were illegal because the guards did not have an eviction court order.
One, Lindiwe Ndlovu, said the guards ordered people out of their shacks before breaking them down.
Sipho Hlambisa said he had to take time off from work to rebuild his shack.
“If they want to evict us, they must be prepared to take us somewhere else.
“They should not just remove our furniture and demolish our shacks.”
Dimba said he had sent the guards to demolish the shacks because the residents were occupying the land illegally.
“The people invaded that land.
“The area is not designed to be a residential area – the place is steep and it is near a stream.”
“The municipality has no plans to build houses or for any projects in that area.”
Dimba said eviction orders were necessary only where people had built proper houses.
Centre for Applied Legal Studies researcher Kate Tissington said, however, that an eviction without a court order was illegal, “and this most definitely is”.
“The occupiers of Mpola informal settlement are protected by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act and if the municipality wants to evict those living there, it needs to go through the eviction application process and get an order of court.”
Tissington said the city had acted illegally by bypassing the act’s provisions.
The eThekwini council speaker, James Nxumalo, said he understood that the city had to obtain a court order to evict people. He said although councillors acted as the eyes of the municipality, they did not have the right to evict people.