The 600 residents of the Marievale had made their homes on a disused military base an hour away from Johannesburg for many years. Some had lived there for as long as two decades by November 2017 when they were violently evicted at gunpoint by the South African National Defense Force (SANDF). Contrary to the provisions of South African legislation, the South African Constitution and international law and standards, they were forcibly evicted without a court order and by soldiers. Generally, the military has no lawful role in eviction.

The SANDF had for years been warned by the South African Human Rights Commission and activists working for the Right to Know Campaign that such an eviction, in the absence of a court order, violated the residents’ rights to access to adequate housing and dignity. When residents asked the soldiers evicting them for a court order they were told, “the Constitution does not apply to the army”. The SANDF’s spokesperson also told news website The Daily Vox “Constitution or no Constitution … the Department of Defence and the military is exercising its right to ensure that a military base remains a military base”.

Despite court orders by the Johannesburg High Court in November 2017, shortly after the eviction, the SANDF has refused to return residents to their homes. This judgment has been appealed. On Wednesday 9 May the High Court in Pretoria is expected to hand down a judgment in a separate case brought by the residents, with the assistance of Lawyers for Human Rights, in an attempt to ensure the residents are allowed to return to their homes before freezing Gauteng winter sets in. They are currently living in rudimentary informal structures they have constructed without any access to water, electricity or sanitation services.

They have described the conditions as “unbearable”. In the Court last week the SANDF maintained,  “there [are] no real constitutional rights or issues that the applicants [want] to protect”.

Last month, at the NGO Forum of the African Commission in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Chris Koitsioe, a community leader told the BHRRC about the struggles of the his community. Local leaders suspect existing and prospective mining in the area motivates their eviction. They have asked BHRRC to assist in getting more information about the mining operations in the area, their role in the evictions and their human rights obligations to the community. Chris Koitsioe explains the plight of his community in more detail in the video below and makes a plea to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is the Commander in Chief of the SANDF according to South Africa’s Constitution, to intervene urgently to ensure the protection of the rights of residents of the community.

Video with Chris is available here.