The Western Cape based Anti-Eviction Campaign is set to challenge stringent bail conditions placed on Max Ntanyana, a Mandela Park community leader.
Ntanyana was released on R1 000 bail this week after the high court set aside a magistrate’s ruling that he be jailed for violating bail conditions in another case.
The campaign is considering approaching the court again to challenge Ntanyana’s bail conditions, which ban him from attending public meetings, effectively put him under house arrest between 6pm and 6am and require him to sign in with police three times a week.
About 70 campaign members are facing a variety of charges from trespassing and intimidation to contempt of court, said the group’s spokesperson, Peter van Heusden.
The campaign has been at loggerheads with council authorities over evictions, which it says are unfair and target the indigent and elderly. This conflict has at times turned violent in Mandela Park — a low-cost housing development in Cape Town’s biggest township, Khayelitsha.
Authorities are accused of cracking down on campaign members and sending ”informants” to its meetings.