Sowetan: Midvaal council ‘runs the courts’

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/05/05/midvaal-council-runs-the-courts

Midvaal council ‘runs the courts’

5-May-2011 | Katlego Moeng
Municipality also seems to be ‘running property business’

THE Midvaal municipality has been in the news over the past months after a series of evictions of property owners who have decried both the loss of their houses and land and the manner in which they were left without a roof over their heads.

Midvaal resident Sonti Maseko, who has lived in the area since 1992, witnessed her home being demolished in November last year.

Despite not having a place to stay, she has refused to leave and has instead chosen to pitch a tent next to the rubble that was once her home. Her husband John Zeefal and daughter Thandeka are with her.

Maseko’s home was demolished after a default judgment in the Vereeniging magistrate’s court.

As a result of her experience and the fact that she has been helping scores of other property owners in a similar predicament, the PAC has drafted her as candidate for the coming municipal elections.

This is Maseko’s story in her own words:

I have lived in a tent in Midvaal since November, including on Christmas and New Year. Now that it is winter we have as as a family altered our sleeping arrangements so as to protect my six-year-old child.

I have kept the tent there for a reason: to communicate to the Midvaal municipality and its agents that the piece of land is still and always will be mine and that I have not abandoned the fight to get it back. I have no other place to go to and no means of acquiring new land and property elsewhere.

The cold snap has not made things easy. To make my situation bearable I remind myself every day that the tent stands as a monument to my harrowing experience.

Many who have supported us through the hard months and have witnessed the whole saga and were themselves traumatised by the demolition of my house, spur us to fight on.

My story is simply this: I lost ownership of my property in 2004 after the municipality’s debt collectors, attorneys Odendaal and Summerton – Odendaal being the chairman of the DA in Midvaal – claimed I owed the council R2700.

For that, in a default judgement, they asked for my property to be declared especially executable, meaning the municipality was not interested in recovering the amount by attaching my car, household goods or anything else. My house was attached as a result.

I only became aware of this in June 2007 when I was notified that my house would be put up for auction in a month’s time.

Despite having a job and a salary that could easily clear the debt, the municipal attorneys said they would not accept my money and instead gave away my property to a third party, thereby forcing me into a lengthy and costly legal battle.

In July 2007, when my property was allegedly sold, I was informed by the very municipality, some two months earlier, that my property was valued at R245000 by municipal standards, which I am told are conservative estimates for tax purposes.

I have since been advised that my property, along the main road constituted prime land and would have been at least worth four times more in market rates as it had business rights. To me the property was just my home, a one-hectare happy space to make a home for my only child.

This was the second time they had gone after my property, having first tried in 1999 by selling it to a company owned by then councillor Steve du Toit and his son Henk for R550, ostensibly to recover a debt of about R1600. How was this possible? Was it legal?

This scenario is possible and has indeed come about because the Midvaal municipality practically runs the Meyerton magistrate’s courts.

The staff in that court routinely stamp piles of documents of default judgements against residents on a daily basis from council attorneys.

In our experience as residents of Midvaal, properties, once attached by the municipality, are sold “at auction”, where the buyers always seem to be the same people.

These individuals and entities then begin eviction processes at the Vereeniging magistrate’s courts, where the proceedings also leave much to be desired.

The property business being run from Midvaal and paid for by Africans is a very lucrative enterprise. This is particularly so when properties – land and house – being auctioned are disposed of for as little as R100 to the buyers, who can then resell them at market rates for a minimum of R300000.

So lucrative is this business that it has spin-offs that trickle down to even the security companies driving around the wards in bakkies advertising eviction and “counter land invasion” services.

Syndicate members have been known in many instances to sell one property to various parties at the same time, pocketing the money and just walking away.

In some cases black residents occupy properties they have paid for but have never been transferred to their names despite their having paid the transfer costs.

As a result they remain vulnerable to legal proceedings to evict them for arrears and for water.

The water charges and rates and taxes are Midvaal’s weapon of choice. It is not unheard of for residents to be charged exorbitant amounts, often as high as between R17000 and R30000.

When reporting to the attorneys to discuss their accounts and make arrangements, residents have reported being humiliated, with one elderly woman having had cigarette smoke blown in her face and told that she must get a boyfriend to help her pay her account.

Others have reported being told if they cannot afford to pay, then they must go and live in the neighbouring (black) townships where they can be “packed like sardines”.