Press release: Auction of Woodlane Village halted after urgent high court application

The auction planned for the sale of Woodlane Village, also known as Plastic View, in Pretoria has been halted after Lawyers for Human Rights, on behalf of residents, successfully obtained an urgent high court order against the Tshwane municipality.

The land is part of nearly 80 properties meant to go on auction tomorrow (24 March). Over 3 000 people have been living on the land for more than 12 years and the sale would dramatically affect their tenure rights and could lead to their eventual eviction. LHR had asked the North Gauteng High Court to review and set the decision to auction off these properties.

The crux of the application comes in the broader public interest to secure land for low-cost housing for the poor. It is important that Tshwane conduct a comprehensive consultative process with affected communities before it sells land suitable for this purpose.

“We are pleased that the occupiers’ tenure is secure for now and that we are given an opportunity to challenge Tshwane’s decision to get rid of such an important asset without following a proper consultative process with people who have a very direct interest. We will also have more time now to deal with broader public interest issues that are brought up when a municipality sells land,” said LHR’s Louise du Plessis.

LHR brought the application on behalf of the so-called Plastic View residents because negotiations with Tshwane to find suitable resettlement have not been finalised. In 2012, the high court ordered that Tshwane build low-cost housing on Woodlane Village and adjacent land by November 2013. If this was not done, Tshwane had an obligation to apply for the eviction of the whole community.

Today’s application was supported by the Pure Hope School that is housed by a church on adjacent land. It provides schooling for 94 children from the affected community. The school continues to grow but will be unable to do so unless it is given more space.

In today’s arguments, Advocate Rudolph Jansen SC – representing the community on LHR’s behalf - explained that Tshwane stood to save a huge amount of resources by halting the auction and concluding resettlement negotiations first. “There’s a lot to be said that Tshwane should be protected against their own folly. It’s just a wasteful way of doing business,” said Jansen.

He went further to say that if the sale went ahead, the constitutional right to housing for homeless people and those living in informal settlements would suffer irreparable harm.

Tshwane has also been accused of failing to comply with its statutory duty of notice and providing an opportunity for objections.

Tshwane has claimed that the community has been illegally occupying the land despite a court order confirming their presence on the land.

The City had argued that it was experiencing a budgetary shortfall and as such had to sell available land to raise money. They said claims that it would evict the community were speculative and had they wanted to evict the community, they would have done so already. Jansen responded that the budgetary interests of the city council could not be compared to the loss of tenure security of the community.