Abused woman and five children 'unlawfully ejected' from shelter turn to court for help

A woman living in a Johannesburg shelter with her five children ended up on the streets last week after, she says, being turfed out without the shelter following a proper eviction process.

The woman, who has been at the shelter since June 2019, is a victim of domestic violence.

She fled from her family home in Soweto, seeking refuge and protection there and had obtained a protection order against her husband last year.

The shelter in Braamfontein provides services to victims and survivors of gender-based violence under the auspices of the Gauteng community safety department.

The woman has applied to the high court in Johannesburg to order the shelter to restore her occupation at the shelter.

The shelter and department of community safety are opposing the application.

Her problems there began on February 15 after an altercation with another resident who complained to the housemaster.

She was called by the housemothers and told to leave by Monday, February 17.

“I was not given any reason or basis for this directive,” the woman said in her application before court.

Security guards at the shelter requested her room keys last Wednesday and packed the family's belongings into plastic bags.

She called around to different shelters seeking alternative accommodation but they could not help.

“This action is tantamount to eviction and was done unlawfully and without following proper process.

“In addition ... it was done in a most violent and traumatic manner, wholly contradictory to the purpose of the shelter, and without any sympathy, empathy for me or my children,” the woman said in an affidavit.

The application was set to be heard on Thursday but could not be enrolled. It is now likely to be heard next week.

Her attorney, Sheena Swemmer from the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, said that since the forceful ejection, the woman and her children were temporarily taken in by another shelter, pending her application.

The new shelter said it would evict her if the application was unsuccessful.

In her affidavit before court, the woman said her children's lives revolved around them  being based at that shelter, given that their schools and her place of employment were nearby, and she was trying to get back on her feet.

She said it was clear that the shelter deprived her and the children of possession of the room wrongfully and unlawfully. The shelter knew the process to remove a resident, as it had already brought at least four applications to evict other residents.

She said the shelter’s conduct in her case was unlawful, as it was not acting in terms of any court order that she was aware of.

“If anything, they are acting counter to a series of legislative provisions such as our constitutional rights to shelter, security of the individual and the rights of children, as well as the mandate of the shelter and the department of community safety as a whole.”

She had never received any legal notification of an application to evict her and the children, nor was she served with any formal disciplinary papers from the shelter.