City barred from evicting Gate 7 residents without a court order

Maitland Gate 7 residents were left without roofs over their heads.

The Western Cape High Court has ordered the City of Cape Town and other respondents to restore possession of the Gate 7 site to residents and allow them to rebuild structures demolished between 23 and 25 October 2026.

The demolitions took place on land opposite Maitland Cemetery on Voortrekker Road, where residents had erected homes in recent months.

The City said it was enforcing a court order obtained by the Ndabeni Communal Property Trust.

Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre said residents brought their application on Thursday, 29 October, resulting in the court’s order.

The court ruled that residents can rebuild their homes on the property.

Naming the City of Cape Town, City of Cape Town Law Enforcement and the Ndabeni Communal Property Trust as respondents, the court ordered the parties “to restore peaceful and undisturbed possession of the property situated at Wingfield Camp, 905 Voortrekker Road, Maitland, Cape Town (hereinafter referred to as "the property") to the Applicants” immediately.

The court ordered the applicants be permitted to “re-erect their informal structures that were demolished on the property, including shacks, tents and other similar structures.

The Respondents were also interdicted and restrained from evicting the Applicants from the property “except in terms of an order of this Court duly obtained”.

Legal representative of the residents, Ndifuna Ukwazi attorney Caitlin Turok, said: “I am very pleased to share the news that we won in the Western Cape High Court.  

“We asked for a spoliation order against the City of Cape Town and Law Enforcement because Law Enforcement demolished several structures of my clients.

“My clients were left out in the cold for the last week. My clients include elderly persons, young children under the age of seven, older children going to school in the middle of writing exams and a disabled child. They were all left out in the cold for the entire week.

Residents’ beds and belongings are left exposed in the open after their shacks were demolished at the Gate 7 Informal Settlement.

“Law enforcement was put on the property to stay there, to monitor my clients to ensure that they couldn't even put a roof over their heads to protect them from the elements.

“So I'm extremely happy with the outcome that Acting Judge Adams has granted us the order and that law enforcement are not allowed to interfere at all with my clients rebuilding their structures and regaining possession of the property.

Turok added: “This case is a strong reminder to the City of Cape Town and to law enforcement that they cannot take the law into their own hands and that they have to go and get an eviction order to evict people.

“Acts such as that are a disturbing reminder of our past where people were forcibly removed from areas where they weren’t wanted or were considered undesirable in those areas.

“We have to ensure that the constitution and the protections that come with the constitution in our constitutional democracy and the prevention of illegal eviction from an unlawful occupation of land act are complied with by everyone in this country.”