On 4 October 2008, private security personnel, aided by the South African Police Service (SAPS), forcibly evicted hundreds of occupiers from a building in the inner city of Johannesburg. During the eviction, occupiers were shot with rubber bullets and beaten with batons. Many also had property damaged. Although the owners had obtained a court order authorising the eviction, the order required the sheriff to carry out the eviction, and so the eviction by private security personnel was illegal. That night, many of the occupiers, including several small children, slept in the street outside the building.

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) was approached for assistance. On 5 October LRC attorney Jason Brickhill consulted with the occupiers and demanded that the owners restore their occupation. When the owners refused, the LRC drafted an urgent High Court application, and were in court that afternoon. Advocate Adrian Friedman, of the LRC, argued the application and the South Gauteng High Court granted an order in the occupiers’ favour at about 16h45, ordering that the owners let the occupiers back into the building, failing which the LRC was authorised to secure the assistance of a locksmith and the sheriff to force entry.

Mr Brickhill and Kgaogelo Nchaupe, LRC candidate attorney, immediately went to the building to try to enforce compliance with the order. They arrived to see many of the occupiers in the street outside the building, guarding their furniture and belongings. The owners continued to refuse to allow the occupiers to return to the building, and their security guards posted at the entrance kept the door chained and padlocked. Mr Brickhill spent several hours negotiating with the security firm and the owners’ attorney, but they made it clear that they did not intend to comply with the order, which forced Mr Brickhill to request the assistance of the sheriff.

The sheriff arrived at the building at about 21h00 together with about 30 of the ‘Red Ants’ who were, armed with crowbars and shotguns. For some time, there was a standoff between the Red Ants and the owners’ security personnel, who had barricaded themselves into the building. Mr Brickhill spoke to the community members to ensure that they remained calm and did not try to rush into the building or attack the owners’ security guards. He also spoke separately to the Congolese security personnel in French, to try to reassure them that they were not in any danger from the occupiers or the Red Ants.

Finally, at about 22h00, the sheriff and the Red Ants broke the padlock, the owners’ security personnel left the building quietly and the occupiers peacefully moved back into their rooms. The following morning, Mr Brickhill learnt that the owners were trying to evict the occupiers again, this time using the sheriff. The LRC then launched an application to rescind the court order of 22 April 2008 authorising the eviction of the occupiers on the basis that they never had notice of the application for their eviction, and were never given an opportunity to oppose the application. That case was argued on 24 November 2008 in the South Gauteng High Court.

Judgment was handed down in May 2009. Citing Section 4 of the Prevention of Illegal Evictions from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act of 1998 (PIE), which prohibits unlawful evictions and provides lawful procedures for the eviction of unlawful occupiers, the Court concluded that the manner in which the sheriff served the process was fatally flawed. The return of service indicated that there were approximately 380 occupiers and 150 occupied rooms at the property, and that 40 copies of the order were affixed to, or slid under the door of each room. This deviated substantially from the manner of service authorised and directed by the court order, and prejudiced the occupiers.