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Breaking the Tie: Evictions from private land, homelessness and a new normality

by Stuart Wilson

INTRODUCTION

The ‘normality assumption’ and its endurance

It used to be simple. A landowner was in law entitled to an eviction order if
he could prove his ownership and the fact of occupation of the land by the
occupier.1 Where the owner acknowledged that the occupier was in
occupation in terms of a valid lease agreement or some other legal right, the

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A862603

Shelter for the poor in landmark eviction ruling
Stuart Wilson

THE days of quick and easy money for property investors in the inner city may be over. The Johannesburg High Court recently handed down judgment in the case of Blue Moonlight Properties 39 versus the occupiers of Saratoga Avenue and another.

Judge Thokozile Masipa held that the High Court could not consider an application for the eviction of 80 desperately poor people living in disused warehouses and workshops in Saratoga Avenue, Berea. It could decide on the application only after the city of Johannesburg had reported to the court what it would do to rehouse the occupiers and when such action would be taken.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A839316

AN IMPORTANT chapter in the lives of 450 residents of the Johannesburg inner city drew to a close recently, when they voluntarily moved out of “San Jose” in Berea and 197 Main Street in Johannesburg. In 2003 and 2004, the city had declared both buildings unfit for habitation and made a court application to evict the residents.

The residents moved into the converted MBV Hospital in central Johannesburg and the Old Perm building in Hillbrow.