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Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sunday Times / Bad Adviser)
The Minister for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, took another blow in her attempt to have the Land Claims Court overturn a personal expenses order. This is the third ruling against her for her personal failure to restore the District Six land claimants, who hope to return to the Cape Town area where they previously lived.
Acting Judge Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC of the Land Claims Court has again ruled against the Minister for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. This ties into a 2019 ruling that she should personally pay the costs in a case brought against her by the District Six Working Committee (D6WC).
In August 2019, Ngcukaitobi found that Nkoana-Mashabane had failed in her duties as minister of rural development and agrarian reform to provide restitution to District Six land claimants. At that point, she found out that she should pay the court costs. So in March 2020, in the Land Claims Court, Ngcukaitobi rejected Nkoana-Mashabane’s authorization to appeal his sentence, again with the costs against him.
In early October, Nkoana-Mashabane launched another lawsuit against D6WC, again asking that the claim against it, including the cost order, be dismissed. According to a committee statement during the court case, Nkoana-Mashabane’s lawyers claimed that she was no longer the minister of rural development and agrarian reform, and the March appeal request had been filed by the current minister of Rural Development and Reform. Agrarian, Thoko Didiza.
At the March appeal hearing, it was revealed that Didiza had not participated in the filing of a request to review the order for costs against Nkoana-Mashabane.
During the hearing held on Thursday, October 1, Nkoana-Mashabane’s attorneys stated that she should not be held personally liable for the lack of restitution.
But at trial, Ngcukaitobi ruled against Nkoana-Mashabane. He cited a late request: It has been almost seven months since his March ruling against her and just over a year since his August 2019 ruling against her. Furthermore, she said, there was no confusion as to who would have to pay the costs, or else it would have been previously raised by her lawyer. Ngcukaitobi questioned why this court request had only been filed now.
In the Ngcukaitobi ruling, he commented on this Nkoana-Mashabane indictment: “There cannot be a fair comparison between the two [Nkoana-Mashabane and Didiza]. Minister Didiza has presented complete and exhaustive reports on the steps that she is personally taking to ensure the resolution of the land claim of the Community of District Six ”.
Ngcukaitobi described Nkoana-Mashabane’s claims of favoritism as “unfounded.” Under Didiza’s leadership, the department has drawn up land restitution plans for the claimants. You have submitted all required blueprints, as previously discussed by Judge Jody Kollapen in November 2018.
At the moment, housing units are being built in District Six, while Cape Town is working with stakeholders to create a neighborhood framework plan for the community. Some of the early claimants were expected to return to the area December, but Daily maverick It has since established that this has been delayed until March 2021 due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“The court awarded a personal costs order against her, making it the third personal costs order in favor of the Sixth District Labor Committee following her reckless and negligent behavior while she was Minister of Land Affairs,” she said Nicki van’t Riet, attorney. Norton Rose Fulbright, who took the case pro bono for the committee.
“The court referred to the request as ‘desperate and bordering on vexatious,'” Van’t Riet said after the trial. “This ruling serves as a warning to public officials and is that they must exercise their powers and functions responsibly, that they will not be allowed to abuse the judicial process just because of who they are and that the law will ultimately seek to protect those who seek to enforce their basic human rights ”.
D6WC spokeswoman Karen Breytenbach said the committee was delighted with the ruling, as it confirmed that South Africa still had a legal system that protects the poor.
“We also view today’s ruling as a victory for the taxpayer who will now be protected from having to pay the multiple personal cost orders awarded against the minister who refused to pay out of his own pocket as ordered,” he said. Breytenbach.
When Daily maverick tried to contact the Nkoana-Mashabane office by phone and SMS on Monday night, there was no response. Daily maverick will update this story once it receives comments from the minister. DM
