Eviction order for various Cape Town CBD occupations granted

The Western Cape High Court has granted a final eviction order for various unlawful occupation sites in the Cape Town CBD.

The order relates to various unlawful occupation hotspots along Buitengracht Street, FW De Klerk Boulevard, Foregate Square, taxi rank and Foreshore, Helen Suzman Boulevard, Strand Street, Foreshore/N1, Virginia Avenue and Mill Street Bridge in the City.

PICTURE: Pixabay

The order includes a standing interdict against any further unlawful occupation of these areas and further City-owned public spaces by respondents identified in the application.

The ruling comes after a lengthy court process since the initial granting of an order for eviction notices to be served in February 2023. Judgment was eventually handed down on Tuesday.

Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis said its Social Development officials have made repeated offers of social assistance to those unlawfully occupying public spaces in the city, including offers of dignified transitional shelter at NGO-run night shelters and City-run Safe Spaces.

Hill-Lewis welcomed the ruling.

‘’The City welcomes this order, which will enable the restoration of public places for all to use in Cape Town's CBD. The court has affirmed City Safe Spaces as dignified transitional shelter, and the offer of spaces at these facilities still stands for those who have not yet accepted. Accepting social assistance to get off the streets is the best choice for dignity, health, and well-being, and the City has gone to great lengths to extend every offer of care to individuals unlawfully occupying public places in various parts of the metro.’’

‘’Where offers of help to get off the streets have been persistently refused, we continue to seek the court's help as a last resort. No person has the right to reserve a public space as exclusively theirs, while indefinitely refusing all offers of shelter and social assistance,’’ he added.

ARCHIVE: Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, at Bush Radio

The High Court further granted the City two similar eviction orders in recent months for central Cape Town. The Sheriff carried out eviction orders for occupants living illegally at the Green Point Tennis Courts in February, and in the vicinity of the Nelson Mandela Boulevard intersection with Hertzog Boulevard, Old Marine Drive, and Christiaan Barnard Bridge on 10 April.

Hill-Lewis says next on the ‘eviction application’ are those surrounding the Castle of Good Hope by the land custodian, the national Department of Public Works.

 

Done By: Mitchum George