Evictions+unconstitutional,+News24,+Johannesburg



=Evictions 'unconstitutional'=

News24, Johannesburg, 14/07/2005 16:29 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The mass evictions from a building in Bree Street in central Johannesburg are "utterly barbaric" and unconstitutional, a legal expert said at the site on Thursday afternoon.

Stuart Wilson of the centre for applied legal studies said that to evict people without giving them interim shelter was cruel and an abuse of human rights.

"Alternative accommodation is never provided by council to these desperately poor people," Wilson said.

"Council never gives the occupants a chance to be heard or oppose the court orders."

Wilson said such evictions may soon be a thing of the past if a high court case, brought by the Wits law clinic on behalf of tenants from six buildings facing eviction, is successful.

Five of the buildings are in Berea.

The law clinic will argue that the eviction process used by the Johannesburg city council is unconstitutional.

Wilson said most court orders for evictions were applied for and received on an urgent basis.

In the case of the Bree Street evictions, the court order stated that tenants would have to leave by December 17 2004.

The court order was granted because of serious bylaw contraventions. The municipality has pronounced the building unsafe.

"If the health conditions are really so terrible, why did it take seven months for council to implement the eviction?" Wilson asked.

"The council is just chasing poor people around the city."

Meanwhile, former residents of Bree Chambers continued to crowd a spot where the Red Ants - men in red overalls conducting the eviction - were placing their belongings.

The Wits law clinic team, after speaking to evicted people on the street, said some had paid rent the day before the evictions.

Tenants on various floors of the building said rent ranged between R500 and R800 a month.

"These people have been betrayed by their landlord," said Wilson.

By 16:00 the Red Ants, who are contracted to the city's metro council, had worked their way up to the ninth and tenth floors of the 16-storey building.

It used to be an office block, which had been illegally used as dwellings.

From: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1737824,00.html