The Johannesburg high court is on Tuesday expected to hear an urgent application brought forward by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) to interdict the City of Johannesburg’s clean-up operation targeting informal trading in the inner city.
SERI took the city to court on behalf of traders who have been affected by the operation, which has been underway since early October.
In its argument, SERI contends that the City of Johannesburg acted unlawfully by removing or evicting traders from their trading sites.
I thought I should make it clear to the media that we are not backing off; we need to implement our by-laws, we need to reclaim the city.
— Dada Morero, Joburg mayor
The organisation is asking the court to order the city to restore traders to their original trading sites and to stop any further evictions. It also wants the matter to be treated as urgent and for the city to pay the legal costs of the application.
However, Joburg mayor Dada Morero said during a media briefing on Monday that the city would not back down from enforcing by-laws and they would be defending the matter in court.
“I thought I should make it clear to the media that we are not backing off; we need to implement our by-laws, we need to reclaim the city. The people want to see a city that is clean, pavements that are walkable and trading that is structured and regulated, and that is what the citizens want to see, and we are not backing down. So, we will go and argue that in court,” he said.
Sowetan
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