Chantelle Benjamin

Johannesburg Metro Editor

MORE than 300 people from Johannesburg’s inner city have gone to court to oppose their planned eviction from six buildings by the city council, which is arguing that the buildings are a health hazard.

Lawyers on behalf of the Wits Centre for Applied Legal Studies and the Wits Law Clinic said in their submission to the Johannesburg High Court that the city was not only obliged to protect residents’ safety, but also to provide affordable housing.

"The city has no plan to enable the occupiers to find homes elsewhere. If they are evicted in the present circumstances … they will be far worse off."

Evictions in Johannesburg’s inner city are ordered by courts in terms of safety and health by-law violations. The city says that if the applications are successful, it could put the entire rejuvenation of the inner city in jeopardy.

According to Stuart Wilson, a research officer for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the majority of the people living in the disputed buildings earn about R1000 a month, while social housing requires an income of at least R3500 a month.

Wilson said there were 82000 people in the city who did not qualify for social housing provided by government and who could suffer a similar fate if the eviction policy was not checked. They would far outnumber the new accommodation being built by the municipality.

Late last year the Johannesburg City Council approved a plan to build more than 1000 apartments with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities at a cost of R40m in the inner city in the next two years to address the lack of accommodation for this sector of the population.

In dispute are four houses in Joel Street, Berea, that have been condemned, a building at 197 Main Street in the inner city and the San Jose apartment building in Berea, which the city has bought for its Better Building project and intends to revamp.

The majority of residents are living illegally. In San Jose, taken over by the city after the owner defaulted on rates, all the residents are there illegally.

Lawyers for the residents argued yesterday that it was unlikely that most of San Jose’s residents would be able to afford the rental once the building had been renovated.

The city argues in court papers that the application, if successful, would "put paid to the (city’s) efforts to eradicate dangerous living conditions" and its efforts to upgrade and attract investment to the inner city.

The residents have also brought a counter-application against the city to have the Building Standards Act declared unconstitutional because it does not require that eviction be weighed up against the availability of accommodation.

Yesterday Johannesburg High Court Judge Mahomed Jajbhay, mayoral council member for the inner city Sol Cowan and lawyers for both sides went on an inspection tour of inner-city buildings to give the judge an idea of the conditions under which the residents are living.

In one building, Dawson’s Leather Wholesalers at the corner of Mooi and President streets, conditions were so poor that social workers were called immediately to the scene.

Bedding was lying amid mounds of rubbish and the stench was unbearable, particularly in the basement, where raw sewage was flowing.