Press Release
Landmark ruling by Supreme Court of Appeal in favour of poor occupiers
30 March 2010
On 25 March 2010, 70 poor residents of a slum-block of flats in Yeoville, Johannesburg won a case against their eviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Eversheds' pro bono department represents the Yeoville residents. In 2008 an order for their eviction was granted by default after a miscommunication with their previous attorneys. The Supreme Court of Appeal now rescinded that order and granted them leave to oppose the application for their eviction in the South Gauteng High Court.
Says Simon Delaney, head of Eversheds’ pro bono department: “The Supreme Court of Appeal affirmed that judges in unopposed eviction cases must proactively engage to ensure that an eviction order is not granted where it will lead to homelessness. Necessary information relating to the needs of children and other vulnerable groups, as well as the municipality’s plans to accommodate evicted people was not placed before the court. In this case, the scant information given to the court by the slumlord regarding the demographics of tenants he had collected rent from for 15 years should have alerted the High Court to the fact that the occupiers were poor and would likely face homelessness if evicted.
"The judgment is a significant victory in the war against unlawful evictions of poor people in the inner city. Hundreds of eviction orders against poor people go through court monthly unopposed, because occupiers are illiterate, ignorant of their legal rights or unable to obtain legal assistance, with homelessness the inevitable result of these evictions. In many cases, judges fail to comply with their constitutional and statutory obligations to appraise themselves of relevant information in order to enable them to make a just and equitable decision."