Part of Harrison Street in Johannesburg came to a standstill on Monday as residents of an inner-city block were evicted.
Johannesburg central deputy sheriff James Calitz said the private eviction was under a high court order granted in early December, which gave residents until February 28 to leave the building.
As personal belongings and furniture piled up on the street, curious onlookers watched from behind a barrier of Red Ants contracted to assist the eviction. Residents on balconies looked down, packed up apartments and milled among their belongings on the street.
The building’s owner, Royal Navy Investments, applied for the eviction after rent had not been paid for a number of years, said an attorney for the owner. Tenants had been invited, through their lawyers, to regularise the occupancy but had declined, he said.
Many residents said they did not know the eviction would take place on Monday.
”We were surprised when we woke up this morning. We found the Red Ants all over the building,” said one resident.
Calitz said each flat was served with a copy of the court order, but residents were not told of the exact date of the eviction after the court’s date to vacate had passed.
Many residents had strong words for the government, saying they did not know where they would go. An upset resident of 15 years said: ”They want us to vote, but where are they? They are drinking coffee in the office.”
A few metres away, a young girl sat in the middle of Harrison Street, wrapped in a duvet on an armchair surrounded by furniture.
”I moved here before 1994 … I started to vote in this building … I don’t know where I’m going to go with my kids,” said a domestic worker who lived with her five children. ”They’re supposed to take us from here and put us in an RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] house, not throw us on the street. This is a stupid government.”
Minah Mashiane said there were 96 flats and residents had paid for water and electricity. ”We don’t know where we’re going.”
Calitz said it was the occupants’ responsibility to move their belongings. ”From our side, it’s basically to clear the building and secure it in accordance with the order.”
Stuart Wilson, researcher at the Centre of Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, said private evictions differ from those by the city council.
The council cannot clear buildings considered unsafe without providing alternative accommodation pending an appeal against a judgement handed down last year, he said.
While the eviction was private, he called on the municipality to play a role.
”The city should be doing more than directing traffic, even if it’s not under duty to provide an alternative. It should be ensuring that at least everybody knows when this is going to happen and have a reasonable time to move out.”
Residents should have asked the court for temporary accommodation under the municipality’s emergency housing policy, he said. ”People generally move into other blocks of flats and occupy other blocks illegally — they just create a squatting problem somewhere else.”
The head of the Inner City Resource Centre, Shereza Sibanda, said residents had paid R400 000 in water and electricity since 1997.
The notice of motion to evict was first served in 2003.
”The 21st [of March] is Human Rights Day — which human rights are they talking about if they are going to throw people in the streets?” she asked. — Sapa