The City of Tshwane has landed itself on thorns for not obeying the cliché ‘look before you leap’.
The municipal administration has been ordered by the court to cough up cash to rebuild shacks that its demolition team flattened and as well pay the legal costs of the owners of the destroyed slum buildings.
The displaced owners of the shacks, who had to raise money to pay for legal expenses, can now look forward to sleeping in their new shacks by October 16, 2014.
Ruling in an application brought by the aggrieved residents of Extension 11 in Mamelodi East, the Pretoria High Court October 1 ordered the City of Tshwane to rebuild shacks it destroyed in Mamelodi East, “within 15 days and to pay all costs for rebuilding and legal costs”.
An opposition Democratic Alliance councilor Peter Miller, who seemed to have appointed himself spokesman of the shack owners, said the court found City of Tshwane destroyed the shacks in Extension 11 without following due legal processes.
He said the court ordered the municipality on Monday to rebuild the shacks within 15 days and to pay all costs for rebuilding and legal costs.
“The community had to raise the money for legal expenses in one of the poorest areas of the city. Yet they managed to do so and took on the municipality”, he said.
Lindela Mashigo, spokesman for the municipal administration, pledged that the city would comply with the court order.
“We are disappointed with the ruling as we wanted to provide those people with permanent stands with basic services,” he said.
