Schubart Park Residents Spend Weekend on Streets Despite City’s Promises

Schubart Park Residents Spend Weekend on Streets Despite City’s Promises

The evicted residents of Schubart Park spent the weekend on the streets of Pretoria after the City of Tshwane failed to fulfill its promises to provide alternative accommodation to them.  
 
Residents were allowed into the buildings for a brief period to collect their belongings, but then spent the rest of the weekend huddled on top of their possessions with nowhere to go.  This included entire families with their children.  There were reports of widespread looting after the doors were open and residents were too afraid to move from their goods for fear that they would be stolen.  
 
A registration process has been underway but it is unclear what the outcome of this process will be.  We have also seen blatant discrimination against foreign nationals who have been told that they will be sent to Lindela (the deportation centre) rather than be sent to shelters as the South Africans.  This is regardless of whether they are documented in the country or not.  
 
 “City officials have been very uncooperative towards us and have been unwilling to explain where the residents would be taken,” said LHR’s Nathaniah Jacobs, who has spent every day since Wednesday night monitoring the situation.  “They only promised that there is a plan, but the details of that plan have been kept secret.”
  
To this point, no one has been able to explain the legal basis for the eviction.  The city officials have called it an “emergency evacuation” while it is clear that this is used to disguise a mass eviction as approximately 8000 residents were forced out on the street with their belongings.  The law, however, requires that evictions comply with the strict legal requirements under the Constitution which includes notice and an order of court.   No eviction court was sought to justify this forced removal.
  
It is shocking that the City of Tshwane would again attempt an illegal removal just a week after appearing in the Constitutional Court defending such practices.  The Court has not yet issued judgment in either eviction case.  
 
LHR is equally disappointed by statements made by city spokespersons who have labeled the residents criminals and ungrateful “non-South Africans”.  The Schubart Park residents are a diverse group of people who share the common burden of poverty and making ends meet.  Labeling the poor as a band of criminals is a cheap comment which shows that the city does not truly appreciate the full extent of the problem.
 
LHR has taken statements and obtained mandates from many of the evicted residents and is currently considering further legal action to prevent this ongoing situation.  
 
For more information, please contact:
 
Jacob van Garderen                                           Nathaniah Jacobs
National Director                                                 Land and Housing Unit
Lawyers for Human Rights                                Lawyers for Human Rights

012-320-2943 / 082-820-3960                          012 320 2943 / 071 608 6658