An interim order evicting a group of Khoi activists who invaded a District Six apartment complex was made final by the Western Cape High Court.

Judge Robert Henney said the group of around 60 people, who occupied flats earmarked for beneficiaries in Zonnebloem, had to be out by 10am on Friday.

"The respondents have failed to show that they have legitimate reason to illegally occupy the housing units," he said in ruling on the urgent application to make the interim eviction order final.

"This court cannot sit back and allow people to forcefully and brazenly occupy property if they have no legitimate claim... or where there is no lawful means to do so."

He said the respondents, except for an individual, had not proved there was a dire need for housing.

He said it was a cornerstone of the rule of law that no man may take the law into their own hands, as the respondents had.

"... We would be setting a very, very dangerous precedent and it would be a slippery, slippery slope."

The activists ignored an interim order granted on Monday and remained in the units.

The applicants in the matter, the rural development and land reform department and the trustees of the District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust, approached the court urgently to enforce the order.

Henney amended the interim order on Thursday night to make an exception for one family, which had two minor children.

"I'm mindful of my duty as the upper guardian of children. I have difficulty, without proper investigation, to order their eviction."

He ordered the social development department to investigate the situation of this family, and for the city to consider alternative housing.

The court would hear full arguments on July 9, when it would make a final order as to whether the eviction was lawful and should remain in place.

The hearing lasted 11 hours because the court hired advocate Louis Wessels to help the group and prepare arguments.

Henney said the common cause facts were that the group entered the District Six premises unlawfully on Saturday, by pushing open the gates and using crowbars to gain access to the unit doors.

He said this seemed to be an offence of housebreaking.

A witness from across the road tried to remind the group that the property did not belong to them.

This was apparently met with the response from one man that they had the authority to act in this manner as they had claim "to the whole of the Western Cape".

The police and security guards did nothing to deter the group.

Even the sheriff of the high court refused to enter the premises without a full police escort, which was not available at the time.

"There would be, in my mind, a very real and imminent danger, injury or damage to any person or property should anyone, such as the lawful claimants, confront the respondents -- or even the police."

Wessels had appealed to the court to allow those with children, the disabled and the elderly to remain in the units pending the final hearing in court.

He had claimed there were at least nine children in the group, but the sheriff counted only two children when he visited the premises on Sunday night.

It was the Khoi's case that they had an ancestral right to the land and that the restitution in terms of the 1913 Land Act did not apply to them because their rights predated it.

They also mentioned an international law in terms of the rights of aborigines.

Paul Tredoux, for the applicants, argued that they had rights in terms of the Constitution and that there was an amendment act under consideration to remove "1913" as a barrier.

He said the department had consulted nationally with the relevant people in this regard.

The beneficiaries of the trust are to move into the units on Saturday.