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Lobby challenges eviction of 101-year-old woman

Man claims he bought house from a granddaughter

Image: 123RF/EVGENYI LASTOCHKIN

A civil society group has filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court to challenge the eviction of a 101-year-old woman from a house in Meadowlands, Soweto.

On October 5, Kenaope Mosidi was evicted from the house where she lived with her granddaughter Patricia Mosidi. A video of a frail Mosidi leaving the home was shared on social media with the public expressing outrage. Patricia took care of Mosidi as all her children are now deceased.

The man who evicted the family was Jacob Moalusi who said he bought the house from Mosidi’s other granddaughter Kedibone Demake.

He told the SABC that Mosidi’s grandchildren brought her from Rustenburg where she has a home just to use her so that they cannot lose the house.

Lawyers For Black People (BLA), an organisation which aims to protect the human rights of the marginalised,  wants Mosidi and her family to return to her home, arguing that the eviction was unlawful.

In the court papers lawyers said Mosidi and her family had been [living on] the property since 2017 and their eviction was done without an eviction order.

“The eviction was not in terms of any law or court order. The manner in which the persons concerned were evicted, treated and assaulted was in and itself unlawful. The first respondent and his people conducted such unlawful and illegal evictions without having regard to the rights of women and children as promulgated under the Constitution of the Republic of SA Act 108 of 1996,” the lawyers argued in the papers.

According to BLAs, Moalusi alerted the Mosidis in 2019 that he had bought the home from Demake and intended to either reside in it or make developments. This came as a surprise as the home was considered a family dwelling and was never for sale.

BLA argued that Moalusi did not provide any written notice ordering the Mosidi family to vacate.

“In this instance there was no valid court order to evict and remove the occupiers, thus making the eviction completely unlawful and unconstitutional in all respects of law and against the principles of natural justice,” the lawyers argued.

“The first respondent more importantly conducted the eviction without the assistance of the sheriff who is by law entrusted with the responsibility to execute and enforce court order, thug giving more clarity on the undoubtable fact that the eviction was unlawful and unconstitutional,” BLA said.

BLA further described the eviction as inhumane.

It argued that even if Moalusi was entitled to evict the family, the court would still not sanction the execution until it is satisfied that the occupiers of the house would not be left homeless.

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