Build homes or go to jail! Mayor and council boss get court ultimatum

29 December 2016 - 20:09 By Dave Chambers
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Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

The mayor and manager of an Eastern Cape municipality face 30 days behind bars for contempt of court.

Ingquza Hill Local Municipality has 10 days to build emergency shelters for 150 people whose homes were demolished amid a land dispute‚ according to an order on Thursday at the high court in Grahamstown.

If it fails to do so‚ mayor Jongintaba Mdingi and municipal manager Mluleki Fihlani will go to prison for 30 days‚ said Judge Judith Roberson.

Thirty-six families whose homes in New Rest‚ 5km outside Lusikisiki‚ were demolished in October‚ won an earlier court order compelling the municipality to provide them with emergency accommodation.

Assisted by Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre‚ they went back to court after finding that the two-room zinc structures had been built for them 4km from New Rest.

Roberson said she did not accept the municipality’s claim that it had built the structures in Slovo Park because New Rest was at the centre of a dispute between factions claiming allegiance to different traditional leaders.

“Their purported belief that New Rest will be invaded and further demolitions will take place… is based on vague and speculative grounds‚” she said.

“The contempt [of court] is of a serious nature. It involves the failure of [the municipality and officials] to fulfil their constitutional obligations towards vulnerable persons who have been deprived of their homes and left without shelter at a place where they have established a community over many years.”

- TMG Digital/The Times

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