Category Archives: Ella Smook

Cape Argus: ‘Squatter ruling not relevant in Cape’

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http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5397125

‘Squatter ruling not relevant in Cape’

By Ella Smook Metro Writer

The City of Cape Town says it is “unlikely” to face a court order similar to the recent Johannesburg High Court “squatter” judgment, which human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale believes holds dire consequences for municipalities and the national purse.

Last month, Judge Brian Spilg ruled that Joburg had a duty to provide housing, even in cases where illegal squatters were evicted from private land.

The municipality was ordered to compensate the private landowner in the matter, at market-related value, for his land being illegally occupied and also to either provide alternative accommodation to the evicted squatters, or financial compensation of R850 a month.

The ruling unleashed anxiety in many quarters, with warnings that it could cause a collapse in Joburg’s infrastructure and cripple municipalities across the country.

At the time, the City of Cape Town declined to respond to the judgment before studying it, but mayco member for finance Ian Neilson said it was worrying that the city might in future not be able to plan adequately and implement a “decent housing policy”, if it was continuously forced to respond to legal actions and pay for situations where people had acted illegally.

Judge Spilg himself acknowledged that the judgment held a “real risk” of an “avalanche of litigation”.

But the city’s lawyers this week responded to questions put by the Cape Argus at the time of the judgment, saying the Blue Moonlight (Joburg) case could be distinguished from the facts of “any case the City of Cape Town might be a party to”.

Spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said the local housing policy could not be compared to Joburg’s, which was found to be unconstitutional. “Cape Town’s housing policy has recently again been found to be constitutional in the high court and has withstood legal scrutiny,” she said on behalf of the city’s legal team.

Last week, Sexwale said that he might approach Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo to voice his concern that the Joburg ruling could throw housing policy into chaos. The judgment, which is on appeal, amounted to “the legalisation of illegality”.

Commenting on how the city was acting to avoid landing in a similar situation as Joburg, Hatton said the anti-land invasion unit played a vital role in stopping land grabs by people who wanted to jump the housing waiting list, which had a backlog of 400 000.

Furthermore, in cases where the landowner agreed, the city provided services for people living on privately owned land.

Before the ruling Joburg only accommodated those who were evicted from state land, even though people evicted from private property faced the same fate.

This meant Cape Town was “unlikely to be in danger of a similar order being granted against it”, Hatton said.

* This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on March 19, 2010

Cape Argus: ‘Delivery protests are our right

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3102&art_id=vn20091021131758824C650686

‘Delivery protests are our right’

October 21 2009 at 02:58PM

By Ella Smook
Metro Writer

Groups representing impoverished Cape Town communities have lashed out at President Jacob Zuma’s warning that the government will not tolerate violent service delivery protests, and the accompanying destruction of property.

Representatives of the Joe Slovo task team, the Landless People’s Movement and Abahlali baseMjondolo defended these protests, saying they were the only way to get the government to pay attention.

“So-called democratic grievance routes,” failed to get answers, they said.

Zuma’s comments came yesterday during his address to most of South Africa’s 283 mayors and all its premiers. He told them there was “no cause in a democratic and free society, however legitimate, that justifies the wanton destruction of property and violence” that had been witnessed in the country.

“South Africa has a proud history of protest against wrong-doing and injustice,” Zuma said.

“There is no institution or individual that our people cannot stand up to and challenge if they think an injustice has been committed.”

But the three organisations, which form part of the national Poor People’s Alliance, said Zuma’s words were nothing new.

“We are not surprised by what he is saying. We have heard these statements in the past that government will not tolerate these protests,” said Mzwanele Zulu of the Joe Slovo task team.

He accused the ANC government of forever “duplicating and assimilating” practices of the apartheid government.

“What is happening is our leaders are turning against us when they are in power. We are becoming foreigners in our land of birth,” he said.

Zulu argued that burning tyres as a sign of dissatisfaction was not a violent means of expression, and said the only reason it was done was in an attempt to engage government authorities, something which did not happen when they tried the legitimate channels.

Maureen Mnisi of the Landless People’s Movement, said government departments had done “a lot of ignoring”.

“People submit memoranda over a lack of service delivery, but there is no reply. People don’t deliver,” she said.

“To demonstrate on the street is part of the process. The government has to recognise that. If they can’t tolerate (such) actions, they have to provide services,” Mnisi said.

Mzonke Poni of Abahlali said that if South Africa were a democracy, “then democracy was supposed to have been able to improve these appalling conditions people are living under”.

He said the inability to access essential services was also a form of violence.

“It is reactionary of him (Zuma) to say this. The ANC government has failed to deliver services to the poorest of the poor, and they have tried in the past to shift the blame for service delivery failures.”

Poni said people viewed taking to the streets as legitimately exercising their right to freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said yesterday that the face of local government was set to change, in an effort to improve service delivery at municipal level.

He said there was a need for reform in the local government regulatory framework, and that the relationships between the spheres of government needed to be optimised to speed up delivery and ensure efficiency.

Chabane, speaking after Zuma’s indaba yesterday, said several processes aimed at local government reform would start from today.