The City of Cape Town To Challenge The Ruling By The Western Cape High Court

The City of Cape Town plans to challenge the ruling by the Western Cape High Court which found that its anti-land-invasion unit (ALIU) had acted unlawfully when it demolished structures and evicted residents.

“As mayor, I have today instructed the City of Cape Town’s legal team to appeal the Western Cape High Court’s order granting an interdict removing the City’s right to protect property from land invasion”, Mayor Dan Plato said in a statement on Wednesday, 26 August 2020.

“The granting of an interdict preventing the City from conducting any counter-spoliation to protect public land without a court order goes far beyond what the Constitution and the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Act allow”, he added.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) had approached the courts in the wake of hundreds of city residents being forced out of their homes, under the lockdown. It also came after Bulelani Qolani, a Khayelitsha man, who was violently ejected from his shack by metro police officers.