When the government put out the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) in 1998 it was to protect the dignity of families and ensure they had a place to call home.

Failure to uphold and enforce it, by the banks and financial institutions, and law enforcement has, instead, seen legendary actress Gcina Mkhize and her children cramped into one room of their three bedroom house as the new buyer renovates the home.

The family of four live in the room of the Glenanda, south of Johannesburg house with one whole wall missing after it was demolished. They have no electricity and no water and workmen continue to tear parts of the house down every day.

“We are exposed to the elements, to smoke and dust, and we (don’t) have any protection from criminals, let alone how we are subjected to the up and down of the workers who are here all day working,” the 51 year-old mother said.

In what has been a highly publicised story, Mkhize and her children said they lived with other occupants in the home, tenants brought in by the buyer who claims to have bought it off auction last year.

“But the law stipulates that no person can be evicted without a court order, which in this case there seems to be none,” property consultant Lize Moodley said. Speaking from what she had gleaned from the media and from footage shared on social media, she explained that while a bank could put property up for auction if the bond payer was unable to keep up with their contractual obligations, she said the law of the land was much more stricter than just that.

“There is the well-known aspect of a person being provided with no less than three months accommodation before they can be left to fend for themselves, and this is in addition to the actual court processes and paperwork, which cancels the binding contract signed by a homeowner and financial institution.”

She said the financial institution, Nedbank in this instance, would have had to notify Mkhize of their intention to put the house on auction, pending any plan she could have come up with.

“If promises fail then the house can be put on auction. After that the bank and the buyer apply to the courts for an eviction order, with the clause to provide her with a temporary dwelling. The law stipulates that she must sign documents to indicate that she understands and, inevitably, accepts her fate,” Moodley added.

But, Mkhize said, she had nothing to indicate that she should leave the home she has lived in since 2015, and while she admitted to having defaulted in bond payments as acting jobs dried out and her husband left, she had been of the understanding that an amicable understanding would have been reached.

“Last year the bank informed me of the auction but my then lawyer stepped in and assured me it had been stopped. Early this year a man arrived at my gate, broke open the locks and told me he owned the house, and from then we have been subjected to hell,” Mkhize said.

The man, she said, has threatened her, moved tenants in, hosts parties on any given day and night and, eventually, the renovations started. To generate an income Mkhize ran a business, and one day her whole collection was thrown into the trash.

She has asked for the buyer and the bank to go to court so that the process can take a legal route: “But neither has done that. Me and my children are being constructively and illegally evicted and not even the local police want to step in.”

Approached for comment, Nedbank said they followed the law in full and would not give in to illegal activity, no matter the situation, but also said would need to look into the specific matter before responding.

As this saga continues so do stories of home-selling syndicates, involving unscrupulous bank and legal sector collusion, which undermine the integrity of the law and demean people.

Moodley said no one should be subjected to the cutting off of electricity and water unless the law was in place. “Not to mention being forced to live in a cramped room without a wall....that is against all that is right. Not even people living in shacks are subjected to that, not even if they have illegally occupied land they do not own.

She said the PIE act was in place to put in place fair procedures for the eviction of unlawful occupiers who occupied land without permission of the owner or person in charge of such land, and it stipulated that: “...no one should have their home demolished or they be evicted without a court order after considering all the relevant circumstances.”

Sunday Independent

ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za