To: Haarhoffs Inc And To: The Manager, Khara Hais Municipality And To: Head of Safety and Security, Khara Hais Municipality CC: The Office of the President of the Rebublic of South Africa, The Minister of Human Settlements, The Minister of Justice, The Ministry of Women, The Minister of Finance, The Minister of Police, The Minister of Traditional Affairs Sirs We draw your urgent attention to this matter and to the correspondence below. Please note: 1. We are an NGO advocating for Access to Justice for the poor through the provision of legal and dispute resolution resources 2. We are consulted widely in forced evictions in communities of shackdwellers 3. We are currently operating beyond capacity and are largely reliant on the pro bono services of legal and ADR practitioners 4. The community in the above matter has had an eviction order granted against them notwithstanding that PIE regulations, international standards of eviction law and the standard laid down in the Grootboom matter have not been adhered to. 5. We attempted to communicate with the Applicants and their attorneys when it was brought to our attention that Legal Aid had denied them assistance 6. Our attempts were not responded to 7. The essence of our intervention was to propose a process which we were willing to assist in establishing a mechanism to achieve a negotiated exit from the land once adequate alternatives are in place 8. The court regardless granted an eviction order regardless giving the community until 12 December to vacate the land 9. There are some 600 of Khoi-San families settled on the land 10. There has been no assessment of vulnerable persons, and there are no measures in place to protect them 11. The applicant has notified the community yesterday that forced removals will proceed on the 7th of this month which is adverse to the court order 12. We will instruct a legal team to serve an application to vary the order to the extent that eviction takes place only once adequate alternative measures are in place 13. Forced evictions will result in homelessness, loss of property and possible injury and loss of life 14. We hereby advise the applicant and its attorneys that should it proceed with intend forced evictions, we will instruct attorneys to embark on criminal remedies within the PIE act as well as serve notice of intention to sue civilly We call upon the The Office of the President of the Rebublic of South Africa, The Minister of Human Settlements, The Minister of Justice, The Ministry of Women, The Minister of Finance, The Minister of Police And any others who have a duty to, to intervene in this matter and bring about a rational and humane alternative to this intended action. We await your response. Kindest regards Sheena St. Clair Jonker BA (Law) LLB (UKZN) ADR Network SA and The Access to Justice Association of Southern Africa adr-networksa.co.za Alternative Dispute Resolution, Restorative Justice Peacemaking, Human Rights Activism Mobile: 0614915314//0843773340 (Please send a text to the 084 number with an indication of urgency)
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 07:37:53 +0000
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