Court reserves judgment on East London's Airport Park eviction challenge

The East London high court has reserved judgment in an application by residents of Greydell farm 871, commonly known as Airport Park, challenging their eviction by the national department of public works on July 27.

The department’s regional head of security, Vuyani Maqetuka, has denied in court papers that the operation was an eviction, saying only incomplete and unoccupied structures were demolished.

“Completed and occupied structures were not touched at all, including those that were situated among, around and next to the ones that were targeted, namely the incomplete and unoccupied structures, in line with both the letter and spirit of the court order,” he said.

The department maintained it was executing a three-year-old eviction order issued by the high court and agreed with the residents who argued the March 14 2017 order was a prohibition on further land invasion in the area.

But the department denied officials had engaged in “an unlawful, cruel and inhumane eviction of the residents” without an appropriate order authorising them to do so.

Last month, Judge Belinda Hartle granted the department’s objection to the residents’ application, on the basis that they had not established their locus standi — their right to engage in the litigation.

The court application previously referred to “residents of Farm Greydell (Airport Park)” as the first applicant, without any supporting documents indicating their legal status, though the founding affidavit on the first applicant’s behalf was signed by resident Simphiwe Fani, who claimed he was duly authorised to do so.

The second applicant in the matter is fellow resident Vathiswa Jack.

However, in last month’s judgment, Hartle “invited” the purported first applicant in the hearing to encourage residents of Greydell to add their joinders to the proceedings so they could all be heard together. The residents also signed “a petition to the court”, lamenting the alleged injustice they had faced.

Subsequently Fani and 77 others were joined as additional applicants in the litigation, without opposition from the department.

Among a raft of serious allegations, residents say their homes were unlawfully demolished.

At the time, DispatchLIVE reported on the destruction of structures at Greydell.

After being left homeless by the demolitions of July 27, the residents said they had been accommodated in the homes of relatives and friends since then.

The East London high court first issued an interim interdict on August 1 stopping the department from instituting further evictions and directing it to use its best endeavours to find alternative accommodation for those already evicted.

In a separate order on August 4, the department also had to ensure that residents under quarantine for Covid-19 were provided with accommodation.

In her September judgment, Hartle held that the terms of these orders remained in place until the final determination of the application.

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