While civil society groups are calling for the resignation of Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, his problems are mounting.
Nine disgruntled property owners will ask the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, to send him and other officials to prison for up to a year for contempt of court committed in their official capacities.
The property owners will also ask that city manager Floyd Brink and a senior manager at the Johannesburg Property Company be imprisoned.
The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals), which represents the nine individuals who own property in the Zondi area of Soweto, said the mayor and other officials have for nearly six years ignored a court order.
Even though they have been held in contempt of court in 2021 for ignoring a 2018 court order, they have still not acted on the order, Cals said.
The 2018 order and the subject of this latest legal bid for imprisonment, concerns certain services which the City of Johannesburg was ordered to deliver, but allegedly failed to do.
The property owners have been unable to occupy their own land and have been charged rates and taxes despite their stands not being connected to basic services.
Cals said it is not the first time the individuals are instituting contempt proceedings against officials at the City of Johannesburg.
In October 2017, nine individuals who own property in the Zondi area of Soweto first brought an application against the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Property Company.
The applicants all bought their properties under the Land Regularisation Programme between 2009 and 2014. The programme was meant to have been a “revolutionary” programme of releasing land that was no longer required by the City and recognised the importance of access to land and a home.
“When our clients tried to have their stands connected to water services, they found that the City had not installed the necessary infrastructure. They were unable to build homes on their properties. In addition, the City started charging them for rates and taxes despite the fact that they were not connected to services and were unable to live on their own stands,” Cals said.
These nine men and women therefore approached the court for relief, asking for an order declaring that the City’s conduct unconstitutional and directing them to install the necessary infrastructure.
They also asked that the rates and taxes they had been charged while having no access to basic services, be written off.
Cals was able to negotiate a settlement with the City of Johannesburg, which was later made an order of court in October 2018. This settlement stipulated that the City install the required infrastructure and that a special council meeting would be convened in terms of the Municipal Structures Act to process the approval of the installations.
However, in the years since, the City and its officials have failed time and again to honour that agreement. In December 2021, the high court found that the City was in contempt of court for failing to comply with its earlier order. Despite this contempt order, the City has still not been able to comply nor honour its constitutional obligations, Cals said.
It has thus returned to court on behalf of their clients to ask that the mayor and other officials be imprisoned for contempt of court for up to one year.
These officials were joined by the court in 2021 in order to facilitate the implementation of the court orders. In addition, Cals is asking the court to declare that the conduct in this case amounts to a neglect of constitutional obligations which is inconsistent with the Constitution and unlawful.
“The City is responsible for providing basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity,” Thandeka Kathi, head of the Home, Land and Rural Democracy programme at Cals said.
She added: “The City has done nothing to fulfil its constitutional obligations for these residents of Zondi. There are many structural barriers to the ownership of land for many disenfranchised people in our country. Even when they do finally obtain it, the municipality is not able to do its part to ensure that that land is sufficiently serviced.”
Cals said despite successfully arguing that the City is in contempt of court and has flouted their constitutional obligations, still nothing has been done.
Thuto Gabaphethe of Cals said: “The conduct of the City officials is simply recalcitrant, especially at the back of a contempt order. Contempt of court undermines the rule of law. We cannot have a situation where officials are left to ignore orders of court and evade accountability. The matter has become a criminal issue and demands a criminal sanction in order for it to be taken seriously.”
As the application for imprisonment has just been issued, the City of Johannesburg and its officials have not yet filed their opposing papers. The City was asked for comment, but has not yet responded.
Pretoria News