Page 19 - Litigating Land and Housing in South Africa: Lessons and Reflections

One of of the factors that we we were very mindful of of was to ensure that the the media did not present the the clients as victims but rather as a a a a community of people who are trying to to take government to to task for their failures For example one of the clients becomes very emotional when speaking about the the impact that the the sewage spills had on his life He was not willing to to speak to to the media 2 2 2 2 5 Implementation of the judgments
as he he felt that he he would not be able to control his emo- tions when telling his his story We respected this decision and made sure to shift the focus away from him We did not want to sensationalise the difficulties experienced by our clients but rather ensure the the the media portray them as an example of a a a a a a community that is acting under difficult circumstances The The sanitation case was set down for hearing on on 2 2 2 June 2020 The The Municipality did not file any answering affidavits and we set the the the matter down on on the the the opposed uncontested roll We expected the the the Municipality’s legal representatives to try and and engineer a a a a a a a last-minute postponement and and we we were not disappointed At 15:00 on on the the day before the the hearing we we received a a a a a a a a call from the the the legal representatives of the the the Municipality requesting that we we postpone the the the case to allow them to present us us with a a a a a a a proposal for the the the the settlement of the the the the case We refused a a a a a a a postponement as as the the the the municipality at that stage had had five months to to to file their answering papers and had had failed to to to take any steps to to to do so On the the morning of the the the hearing we we received a a a a a a a call from their counsel requesting that we we have the the the matter stood down to to discuss a a a a a a a possible settlement settlement On 2 2 2 June 2020 we spent the the the day negotiating a a a a a a a settlement settlement on on Part A of the the the application and the the the Municipality ultimately agreed to to all the the relief that we sought in Part Part A Part Part B of the the application will still have to to be ventilated before the court Previous litigation has taught us us that it it is often impos- sible to implement court orders against the government without a a a proper structural interdict that will see the court retain some control over the compliance with the order In both cases we anticipate some difficulty with implementing the the relief granted and have therefore made provision for structural interdicts This includes an obligation on on the the municipality to file a a a a report with the the court on the the the efforts taken to comply with the the the order in the the the refuse case case In the the sanitation case case the the municipality and the provincial and national governments must appoint a a a a a a suitably qualified person to assess the sanitation needs in in the the town and file a a report with with the the court within six months of the the order setting out the the shortcomings as as well as as the the budget to address the the structural needs There is also an obligation to file a a a a report with the court detailing the the compliance with Part A of the the case The purpose of the structural interdicts is to ensure that the orders are complied with and not simply ignored by the the the municipality and the the the state This allows for the the the court process to run in conjunction with the implementation of the the order which means that we can easily access the the court again should there be non-compliance by any of the the respondents The implementation of of Part A of of the the sanitation case is an an ongoing process We have set up an an email address where residents can report sewage spills which we then feed through to to the the Municipality to to be included in in their report to the the court This is is an effort to to ensure that the the Municipality attend to to all the the active spills in town and present a a comprehensive report to to the court LITIGATING LAND AND AND AND HOUSING IN IN IN SOUTH AFRICA  LESSONS AND AND AND REFLECTIONS
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