DENNEBOOM TRADERS TAKE ON THE CITY MANAGER OF TSHWANE, THE MAYOR OF TSHWANE AND THE CEO OF ISIBONELO FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT

On 10 February 2017, a group of about 287 informal traders from Mamelodi Denneboom Metrorail station obtained a court order in their favour against the City of Tshwane and Isibonelo Property Services (the developers of the new mall at Denneboom station worth R850 m). The order was sought on an urgent basis after the City and Isibonelo had embarked on an aggressive constructive eviction of the traders from a trading area they had occupied as far back as 1960 to make way for the new mall.

In terms of the court order, the City of Tshwane and Isibonelo were ordered to relocate the informal traders to a temporary facility, to enable the traders to continue their business while construction was ongoing, and to provide the following:

• containers for traders who were occupying fixed structures;
• trading spaces for traders who were occupying informal stalls; and
• proper ablution facilities, including communal water and electricity.

However, from February to September 2017 the City and Isibonelo failed to implement the court order accordingly but instead proceeded to demolish the traders’ stalls reducing everything to rubble. The traders not only lost their stock, their goods and their building materials, but also their main source of income and livelihoods. Their constitutional rights to dignity, equal protection before the law, freedom and security of the person and to trade and earn a living were unjustifiably infringed.

 Lawyers for Human Rights subsequently launched another urgent application in November 2017 against the City and Isibonelo (including the City Manager, the Mayor and the CEO of Isibonelo) for contempt of the court order as well as compensation for the demolition of the traders’ stalls, the loss of stock and the violation of their constitutional rights.

On 8 November 2017 the Honourable Madam Justice Mphahlele thereafter referred the application for contempt to trial and the trial will run during the week of 22 October 2018.

“This is a rare instance where contempt of a court order is dealt with by means of a trial as it normally proceeds by way of an application. The fact that the matter was referred to trial means that the City Manager, the Manager and the CEO of Isibonelo will be required to appear personally in court and give evidence to disprove the allegations of contempt made against them.” – Thandeka Chauke, Land and Housing Programme.

For more information contact Carol Mohlala, Media and Communications Manager on 079 238 9826 or Louise Du Plessis, Land and and Housing Programme Manager on 011 339 1960