Prasa dealt with the Foreshore evictees in bad faith, says Ndifuna Ukwazi attorney

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has finally complied with an order by the high court, compelling it to return building materials belonging to people sleeping on Transnet-owned land on Cape Town’s Foreshore.

In a joint operation in August, Prasa attempted to evict about 38 people from the land off Marine Drive. The group remained at the site, but their shelters were dismantled and confiscated. The group has been fighting this in court, assisted by housing activists Ndifuna Ukwazi.

During a court hearing in September, Judge Tandazwa Ndita gave Prasa 24 hours to return the group’s belongings and build “temporary habitable dwellings that afford shelter, privacy and amenities at least equivalent to those that were destroyed”.

Prasa did not immediately comply and instead filed papers opposing Judge Ndita’s order, but eventually abandoned its bid.

The group’s belongings were eventually returned, but some of the items were badly damaged and unusable.

One of the people living at the site, Juma Msomali, said: “They came here with a truck and offloaded broken planks and torn plastic bags. We cannot reuse them.”

Jonty Cogger, an attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi, said the court order was clear. 

“Prasa was instructed to return the evictees’ materials and reconstruct their temporary shelters within 24 hours. While Prasa did partially comply by returning some of the materials, they have yet to fulfil the critical part of the order — to reconstruct the shelters,” he said.

‘Bad faith’

DM