Residents of Kanana Village in Bronkhorstspruit will all have to be evicted within a year, the SCA ruled.
In a legal spat spanning more than two decades, the Supreme Court of Appeal has now slammed the City of Tshwane’s attempt to expropriate privately owned land near Bronkhorstspruit, outside Pretoria, in a bid to house hundreds of illegal occupants.
Judge Daisy Molefe, who wrote the unanimous judgment, found that the municipality’s expropriation process was unlawful and it could not be used to bypass an existing eviction order. The court gave the municipality a year to finally relocate all the residents.
Lawyers for Human Rights’ Land, Housing and Property Rights Unit has been embroiled in several court applications in a bid to ensure that the occupiers - a community of about 500 households - have a roof over their heads.
The community, known as Kanana Village, for many years fought eviction by a private owner who bought the land. The Kanana Village was established 21 years ago at the farm Kameelzynkraal, Pretoria East. The then owner of the farm, Ben Gomeni, invited families who were left homeless by unlawful evictions to come and occupy part of the farm.The farm owner had plans to formalise the community. However, in December 2005, he died before he could do so.
