Cape Town’s Unlawful Christmas Evictions Top Up City Homelessness

GOOD Statement by Suzette Little,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor & Caucus Chairperson

23 December 2023

City of Cape Town law-enforcement officers are carrying out pre-Christmas evictions without court orders or the presence of the Sheriff of the Court as required by the law.

Over the past 10 days, the GOOD Party has received reports from residents of city rental housing stock and backyard-dwellers – in Uitsig, Athlone, Hanover Park and Elsies River – that they are being forced from their homes without notice, and threatened with arrest if they raise objections.

Evicted residents are not being offered alternative shelter as the law demands. Many of them have nowhere else to live, and will join the ranks of the thousands of other homeless people on the streets of Cape Town.

While the DA-led City runs a polished public relations campaign to sell the idea that it gives a damn about homelessness, and the housing backlog, the truth is that there is a critical shortage of both infrastructure and ideas.

The Mayor projected himself as Father Christmas when recently opening a new “safe space” for homeless people but providing temporary alternative accommodation to those whom the City evicts is not charity; it’s the law.

The fact is that the number of available beds and social interventions to sustainably address homelessness are so far behind the need that the “safe spaces” are symbolic, besides a legal necessity, and the problem is only going to increase.

My question is: What kind of Father Christmas sends his stormtroopers to evict people in the days before Christmas, without bothering about legal process? Where should they go? Where should their children sleep?

Should they erect a tent outside the Castle?

I have addressed a series of emails to the Mayoral Committee to inquire whether its housing department has been given authority to order and/or carry out evictions using law-enforcement officers, without the necessary court orders, and whether it believes this complies with the law.

Those who are employed to uphold the law should not be manipulated by politicians to violate the rights of struggling residents.

The City is not above the law. They may only evict a tenant who has breached the terms of their lease and only in terms of a court order. The eviction must be done by the Sheriff. Anyone forcibly removed from their home, by the City, without a court order should immediately contact Legal Aid for assistance, or write to me at suzette.little@capetown.gov.za or WhatsApp me on 0733215036, I have taken up previous cases and will ensure your matter is addressed with the relevant responsible official.

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