A group of 133 aggrieved residents of an informal settlement in Thembisa, Ekurhuleni, are gearing up to once again drag the municipality to court for contempt over its refusal to provide them with their houses, more than two decades after they were approved.
The houses have since been handed over to other beneficiaries.
This comes after the residents of the Winnie Mandela informal settlement, represented by the Socioeconomic Rights Institute of SA (Seri), failed in their bid before the Constitutional Court for R15m in constitutional damages against the metro over its failure to provide them with alternative housing.
In the majority ruling on Tuesday, Justice Chris Jafta pointed out that constitutional damages were not appropriate for enforcing socioeconomic rights.
Jafta said while the residents were entitled to their houses, which were approved in 1998, their application for monetary constitutional damages had to be dismissed as it also equated to seeking additional relief.
“Here the applicants sought constitutional damages over and above the order of Teffo J, which directed the municipality to provide them with houses. This meant that the damages sought were not to replace the houses they were entitled to but were in addition to them,” Jafta said.
Seri executive director Nomzamo Zondo said the apex court had now narrowed down the residents’ options, even though it had affirmed their right to their houses.
“We will now pursue contempt against the municipality and against the individual office bearers in terms of the original order that was issued in order for them to oversee the provision of these 133 houses with clear dates now,” Zondo said.
The residents have been forced to live in squalor without basic services for years after their houses were given to other people while the municipality continued to slap them with bills for the disputed houses, without removing the occupants.
The legal fight ensued in 2015 after failed negotiations, as the residents sought to force the municipality to give them alternative housing or upgrade their homes through the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme.
While the court ordered the municipality to grant the residents houses, a protracted legal battle ensued, with the delivery of the houses delayed by the metro’s repeated requests for postponements.
This saw Seri also seeking constitutional damages of R5,000 per resident monthly until the houses were delivered, which was dismissed by the high court.
Zondo said while the residents were disappointed after losing the fight for constitutional damages, the ruling had reaffirmed their rights to their houses.
She said some of the original 133 claimants had since died while a number of them were elderly.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where many of them pass away without finally living in their houses. The municipality has been shifting the goalposts. Even the deadlines that they had set for themselves they have failed to meet. We need to be back in court so that we can have a process where those deadlines are managed,” Zondo said.
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