Mercury: Order granted against landlord ‘harassment’

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4458497

June 17, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of Motala Heights, near Pinetown, have secured another court interdict against landowner Ricky Govender, who they accuse of waging a “war of attrition” against them, to drive them off the property so that he can develop the land.

And they also hope for a Durban High Court order to compel the Pinetown police to “perform their statutory duties” and come to their aid, instead of “acting in cahoots” with Govender, his relatives and friends.

On Friday, Judge Gregory Kruger granted an interim order preventing Govender and two relatives from harassing and abusing James and Gunum Pillay and their neighbour Mallie Govender.

Motala Heights is situated on the edge of Pinetown, between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof.

The community is made up of a new, wealthy suburb with old tin houses behind and, up the hill, a shack settlement.

Govender bought the land some years ago and, residents claim, has embarked on an illegal campaign to evict them since then.

Govender, in previous interviews, claims to have paid R1 million for the property at an auction and to have been “trying to develop it the legal way” for five years. He says the municipality puts pressure on him, claiming it is his responsibility to keep “squatters” off.

In the application before Judge Kruger, the three residents accuse Govender of behaving like a “dictator”.

They say that an interdict obtained against him last September had a “limited effect on his behaviour”. He has continued to threaten, harass and assault them “through his various agents, employees, relatives, skivvies and lackeys”.

“He holds himself out as something of a dictator who appears to have curried favour with the local police station in Pinetown and has sown fear and terror throughout Motala Heights,” James Pillay said.

Incidents include threatening to bulldoze their properties, dumping and burning waste on their properties, and blocking their driveways with cars.

Residents have also been assaulted and have received threatening telephone calls. Pillay said he found a petrol bomb lying in bush near his house.

His wife had had knives thrown at her, a visitor to their home had been threatened by two panga-wielding men and, in May, he had been arrested and detained for almost two days on a trumped-up charge.

Govender has until July 25 to oppose the order’s being made final.