15 hours ago
Bid to evict unlawful occupants of building in Cape Town CBD hit by another delay
Marvin Charles/News24
The national Department of Public Works delayed the eviction of 104 Darling Street residents in the Cape Town CBD, allowing further consultations with the City of Cape Town and Ndifuna Ukwazi.
Ndifuna Ukwazi, representing the residents, opposes evictions without providing decent alternative homes or viable relocation options.
The case was postponed to next month.
The national Department of Public Works' attempt to evict residents unlawfully occupying a building in the Cape Town CBD has been hit by another delay after it requested a postponement to allow further consultations with the City of Cape Town and Ndifuna Ukwazi.
Ndifuna Ukwazi represents residents of 104 Darling Street, also known as Irene Grootboom House, a three-storey building in the city centre.
On Thursday, Western Cape High Court Judge Mokgoatji Josiah Dolamo postponed the case to 29 July.
The City and the department are expected to engage in finding suitable emergency accommodation for the occupiers should they be evicted, and the residents will be given time to respond to any proposals.
On that date, advocates will meet in chambers with Dolamo, after which a date for the eviction hearing will be set.
According to City by-laws, the building had been declared a problem property.
Residents have lived without electricity since December 2016.
The property has since deteriorated - with makeshift shacks erected inside, broken doors, and additional informal structures in the backyard.
News24 previously reported that the department planned to demolish the small, dilapidated office block. However, refurbishing it has been deemed too costly, with estimates reaching R3 million.
In court papers, the department argued the property - made up of two parcels of land - was vulnerable to land invasions and further illegal occupation due to its rundown condition. The adjoining vacant land is also overgrown with trees, posing a potential fire risk.
It previously indicated alternative accommodation would be offered at one of the City's supported facilities, including Safe Space shelters in central Cape Town.
Speaking outside court, Ndifuna Ukwazi organiser Lorenzo Johnson said:
Residents are facing an urgent eviction from the Department of Public Works. And we are here to say that if the building is dangerous to the community, the people need to be moved.
'But we are asking that the people be given decent homes or options to move into. So, we are here to oppose the eviction, and there is no real evidence to say that the building is in danger for the people living in,' he added.
Like other prominent inner-city occupations - such as Cissie Gool House in Woodstock and Ahmed Kathrada House in Green Point - the building at 104 Darling Street was named after a well-known activist.
Irene Grootboom House honours the housing rights activist who won a landmark 2000 Constitutional Court case, which ruled that she and others could not be evicted from an informal settlement in Kraaifontein without being provided alternative accommodation.
