The City of Johannesburg is considering other legal avenues to evict unlawful occupants, who it described as drug peddlers and prostitutes, who have invaded a retirement centre in Florida, west of the city.
The illegal occupiers have allegedly managed to permanently live at the Donovan McDonald Retirement Centre and the high court has dismissed the application by the city to have them removed.
The court said the illegal occupiers pose no threat to others and the property.
The centre, which the city owns, was intended for senior citizens who earn a Sassa old-age grant. Rent ranges from R207 to R300.
Instead, it has become a ‘family centre’ with small children running through the corridors, teenagers roaming the area and elderly living with their adult children and grandchildren, defying the purpose of the retirement village.
A 75-year-old resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said the once-peaceful retirement centre that had bingo nights, outings and a sense of communal living, was now segregated as it had turned into a centre for people of all ages, including children, who sometimes knock on her window to ask for food.
The 183-unit property now houses more than 250 people, many of whom are unlawfully occupying the place as they did not sign a lease agreement with the city.
“What happens is an elderly father would pass away and their son would come to look after the mother. Once the mother passes away, the son claims the unit as his and lives there permanently, without paying rent or being on the lease.”
To legally occupy the retirement centre, a Sassa pension grant beneficiary aged above 60 has to apply at the department of housing and human settlements, have limited financial income, submit relevant doctors’ reports, affidavits, proof of being a Sassa beneficiary and a South African citizen. Once vetted and the application approved, it is logged into the City of Johannesburg’s system and a lease agreement is signed.
“One elderly man lives with his daughter — who turns out to be a lady of the night. She would sometimes leave the children in the house with the elderly father. If he is not around, the children would get out and knock on our windows, begging for food. We have people who have moved in and never went through the process of applying and being vetted,” she said.
City to find legal means to evict unlawful occupants as court failed to consider the circumstances
The Johannesburg high court, however, dismissed an urgent application by the City of Johannesburg to evict all unlawful occupants on Monday.
In the urgent application, the city argued that it allocated units through a vetting and selection criteria process for those who genuinely required accommodation at the centre.
However, a number of units and the common area at the centre were poorly maintained or have been vandalised, while some were illegally occupied. It further told the court that some units were used for drug peddling while one accommodated sex workers.
City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane told TimesLIVE Premium that the court failed to consider all relevant circumstances presented in the urgent application.
“The judgment should not be misunderstood as vindication for people who unlawfully occupy the city’s property and then resist eviction,” he said.
Modingoane said the city respects the rule of law and is obliged to protect the elderly people who lawfully reside at the centre.
“It is for this reason that the city is considering all its available legal avenues after judge Wilson’s judgment,” Modingoane said.
The city failed to show any imminent threat to people and property, the court ruled
In his ruling, judge Stuart Wilson said the city failed to explain how the issues at the centre came about. In addition, he said the city could not indicate the number of people it wished to evict, nor could they be identified.
The Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Act permits urgent eviction of unlawful occupants under certain circumstances including showing a “real and imminent danger of substantial injury to people or property” by an unlawful occupier.
“The city’s papers do not come close to meeting this requirement. It is, in fact, clear on the papers that the relief the city seeks would result in the eviction of entirely innocent occupants who, while not on the city’s list of ‘vetted’ residents, have nothing to do with the conduct the city seeks to eliminate.”
Wilson referred to testimonies by Mr and Mrs Adonis, aged 69 and 59 respectively, who lived with Mrs Adonis’ mother, 82, who had Alzheimer’s disease.
The couple testified that they lived with the mother to help feed, bathe and dress her and protect her from possible dangers of living alone. But the city argued that the centre was not equipped to provide such care for the mother and that she should be moved to a facility with more intensive support.
“The city does not explain why. Accordingly, I must accept the evidence before me that Mr and Mrs Adonis are the only source of care and support [that the mother] has. They also pose no risk, substantial, imminent or otherwise, of any injury to people or property. [The city] could not suggest that they did.”
He said the city’s papers failed to identify the unlawful occupants it complained about, therefore he cannot say how many residents are ‘vetted’ to be in the centre. Without any sense of knowing the unlawful occupants, it would be impossible to identify to whom the eviction order should apply.
Wilson said Mr and Mrs Adonis were two of several people who appeared in person before him, and none of them seemed to show any threat of real or substantial injury to people or property.
“Nor could [the city] say that they were the cause of any such threat. For at least these reasons, the application must fail.”
A gang leader, a kleptomaniac and security get robbed at the centre
Despite the court ruling, there were risks of danger and harm at the facility due to incidents of petty crime, the absence of electric fencing and two security guards on the property being robbed.
Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said the security guards, who are on patrol 24/7, opened the gate to people and were robbed at gunpoint.
“There are petty crimes that happen and even though we have 24/7 security guarding the gate, they are useless. They once got robbed of their two cellphones at 2am, at gunpoint. They actually opened the gate for the idiot who robbed them. That is the quality of our security.
“We have a lady who is a kleptomaniac and she steals things off the washing lines. People know and do nothing about it. In our section of the centre, they put up lights for our verandas, but someone comes with a wheely bin and steals the light bulbs. We live looking over our shoulders because we don’t know what is going to happen. We can’t walk about at night because we don’t know if someone dangerous is coming along the corner,” she told TimesLIVE Premium.
Our biggest problem from day one is access to the property. There is no real control. The manager is also not capable at this stage to be hands-on because how does one person manage three retirement villages?
— John Kirsten, ward 70 committee member
Florida South Residents Association chairperson Rodney Churchyard has been working with relevant provincial departments to deal with the issues at the centre.
Churchyard said he was disappointed by the judgment as the court failed to see the issue through the eyes of the city. From his experience of dealing with the place and assisting lawful residents, he found out there were threats of danger at the facility.
“There is a gang leader who stays there permanently — but without his gang. When someone tries to give him issues, he threatens to call his gang and says that no-one can remove him. Twenty minutes later, he had people from his gang arrive at the centre. Car batteries and tyres get stolen at the centre and it's even occupied by such thieves. We are disappointed as we see the conditions and fear these elderly people are living in. In some cases, keys to units get stolen. There is a wall that has been damaged by unlawful occupants to gain access.”
Not only do residents feel unsafe, but the units and centre are not maintained, the fire hydrants have not been serviced in two years and burst water pipes take days to repair.
Ward 70 committee member John Kirsten said the centre has one manager who is also responsible for three other retirement villages.
“Our biggest problem from day one is access to the property. There is no real control. The manager is also not capable at this stage to be hands-on because how does one person manage three retirement villages? There is no social worker on site that can help move people with dementia to proper homes ... The lift doesn’t always work and there is no contract in place for people to maintain and repair the lift. There is no handyman on site to fix door locks or the fence. There was a pipe that burst and could be repaired in half an hour, but it took three days and people had no water,” Kirsten told TimesLIVE Premium.
In his judgment, Wilson also pointed out the city appeared to have both caused and worsened the problems it intended to address in the court application.
“It is, after all, the city that owns the centre and the city which ought to have put in place the controls necessary to ensure that its use is properly regulated. Having failed to do that over what seems like an extended period, the city now seeks relief which would, on its face, endanger the safety and wellbeing of the very people the city says it wishes to protect,” said Wilson.
Modingoane said the city adopted various methods such as increased security, raids on the property with the JMPD, audits on tenants residing in the facility and employment of forensic investigator services to ensure the safety and control of the property.
“The building cannot be classified as a hijacked building as the city is implementing measures to ensure that the building remains safe to all the occupants. The removal of occupants who are on the property unlawfully is one of the measures the city has to implement to ensure that the retirement centre becomes safe once again for the tenants who are on the facility lawfully,” Modingoane said.
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