The City of Johannesburg scored a legal victory in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in its ongoing battle against land invasions at Rabie Ridge – this time against more than 200 people occupying a portion of the land.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, earlier dismissed an urgent eviction application by the city aimed at removing the people who had occupied a portion of the land.
The property, which is not developed, forms part of the land earmarked for a mixed housing development intended to de-densify nearby informal settlements and provide housing to eligible community members.
Rabie Ridge is located north-east of Johannesburg, near Midrand, and is adjacent to Tembisa. The city argued before the High Court that the continued occupation threatened to derail the project, which forms part of the Greater Ivory Park upgrading initiative and carries an estimated first-phase cost of over R8 million.
The High Court in 2024 declared that the eviction by the city of the respondents from the property was unlawful and ordered the city to restore the respondents’ peaceful and undisturbed possession of the property.
The court also granted an interdict prohibiting the city from evicting any of the respondents, their spouses, life partners, or children from the property without a court order. Attached to the order was a list of over 200 persons to whom the relief was granted.
The respondents do not dispute the city’s assertion that all three Rabie Ridge properties have become a ‘hotspot’ for land invasion over an extended period of time by different groups of people.
According to the city, it is involved in parallel litigation with another group, also claiming a right to occupy the property. There has also been litigation involving similar activities and claims in relation to the other two properties in Rabie Ridge.
The High Court has, in respect of the latter properties, granted orders interdicting individuals and groups from, among other things, erecting or completing further structures or further occupying the land.
Judge Raylene Keightley, who penned the SCA judgment issued this week, commented that this indicates that, by all accounts, land invasions on these properties have been ongoing over an extended period.
As the property is earmarked for a housing project, cement slabs were laid years ago with a view to further development, but this has ground to a halt.
Calvin Bantham, one of the community leaders involved in this latest spat, told the court that at the time that the planned development was initiated, it was earmarked for occupation by “the community”.
According to him, the community had been granted the right to occupy the property by the late Mayor Geoff Makhubo and the member of the municipal council for housing, Mlungisi Mabaso, in 2020.
Bantham said the community thus took possession and occupation of the property in September 2023 and has remained in occupation ever since.
The city disputed this and explained that it had to contract service providers to patrol the area to avoid land invasions and to remove illegal structures. It was after one of these clean-up operations that Bantham and his group turned to court against the city’s “illegal eviction”.
Judge Keightley, meanwhile, referred to the list of applicants earlier handed to the High Court, which that court accepted to be the applicants (the respondents in the SCA proceedings at that time).
The SCA noted that there was a marked absence of any personal information or details provided by the respondents to demonstrate their possession and occupation of the property, and to link them to the structures that were removed.
The community and its conduct were explained by Bantham in broad and general terms, and the SCA concluded in favour of the city that the High Court had erred in concluding that Bantham and the persons it listed in annexure were entitled to the relief granted.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
