LHR in court for female-headed household facing eviction

Lawyers for Human Rights has appeared in the Pretoria High Court on behalf of a female-headed family, who are being evicted from their family home.

On 14 May 2013, the magistrates’ court in Soshanguve granted an eviction order against the family, holding that registration of the property into the name of a third party rendered the family members living in the home unlawful occupiers in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE).

Due to the gender discriminatory legislation of the past, the house could not be registered in the name of the female family members living in the property and was as a result registered in the name of the eldest brother who did not live in the home. During an arbitration hearing in 2000, the house was found to belong to Ms Mdlomo, our client, who lives in the house. Despite this, the title to the house was transferred by the City of Tshwane into the name of the eldest brother and shortly thereafter sold.

On appeal, LHR argued that the order was erroneously sought and granted. It was submitted that the family were not unlawful occupiers of their family home, as their rights were protected in terms of the Interim Protection of Informal Land rights Act 31 of 1996 and thus excluded from the definition of an unlawful occupier in terms of PIE.

In upholding the appeal, the high court found that the court a quo misdirected itself by not fully ventilating the pertinent facts put before it and failed to apply the relevant legislation. The court also held that the magistrate had erred in finding that the family were unlawful occupiers and therefore, set aside the order and instructed that the matter be remitted back to the magistrates’ court for a re-hearing on oral evidence, with an appreciation of the particular factual and legal matrix of the case.