Residents of a low-income housing estate in Durban are opposing an eviction application by the developers of the property.
|||Residents of a low-income housing estate in Durban, who are opposing an application to evict them, were placed on terms by a Durban High Court judge on Tuesday to be ready to argue their case next week.
Sohco Property Investments, developer of the River View housing estate in Cato Manor, is seeking the eviction of residents who it claims hijacked most of the 330 two-bedroomed units, chased away lawful tenants and knocked down walls to create “super units”.
Sohco, a not-for-profit company, says in court papers that residents at River View and two other housing projects in Durban embarked on a rent boycott in 2010, in an attempt to get their rents reduced, plunging the company into financial difficulty.
The residents’ representative, Njabulo Nxumalo, claims they have a legitimate rental dispute with the company.
The eviction application was meant to be argued before Judge Jerome Mnguni on Tuesday, but the residents’ attorney Senzo Ngwane, asked for an adjournment as he had only been appointed last Wednesday.
“After their attorney withdrew on the last occasion, they made every effort to get an attorney timeously. If an application for an adjournment is refused, then we are faced with the possibility of 1 000 people being homeless.”
Judge Mnguni told Ngwane that he should have notified the court of the application.
“You have got to explain to your clients that we are not playing games here.”
Sohco’s advocate Dave Phillips, said
: “These people are not the poorest of the poor, and if they have not placed their circumstances before the court, then they must live with that.”
Judge Mnguni adjourned the matter to next week, ordering the residents to pay the costs of Tuesday’s hearing. - The Mercury