Brown v Klerksdorp Town Council

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Judge: Schreiner JA, Van Den Heever JA, Hoexter JA, Fagan JA and Steyn JA
• Judgment Date: 06 June 1955
• Hearing Date: 13 May 1955
• Court: Appellate Division

H Van den Heever, J.A.:

Appellant was the occupier of a stand in the Old Location, Klerksdorp, under a site permit issued by respondent in

Van den Heever JA

terms of the regulations made under the provisions of the Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act, 25 of 1945, and governing occupation in the said location. Thereafter, before this litigation commenced, respondent Council laid out a new location, the Jouberton Location, and sought to A remove the residents of the Old Location to the new one. Appellant refused to move or be moved, whereupon respondent Council applied for and obtained an order for ejectment in the Transvaal Provincial Division. An appeal to the full Court of that Division failed, hence this appeal.

It is necessary to set out briefly the legal and factual considerations involved in this dispute.

B Sec. 3 (2) of Act 25 of 1945 provides:

'No location . . . shall be removed, curtailed or abolished without the consent of the Minister, after reference to the Administrator, and upon such terms and conditions as to compensation and otherwise as the Minister, after consultation with the urban local authority, may direct.'

On the 5th April, 1949, the Minister consented to the proposed removal C of the Old Location. The letter in which that consent was conveyed to the respondent Council contains, in so far as is relevant, the following:

'Verder word ook goedkeuring verleen aan die benoeming van Mnr. B. C. Botha . . . as verteenwoordiger van u Raad en Mnr. J. A. Campbell . . . as verteenwoordiger van die Naturelle, om as waardeerders op te tree om die vergoeding wat betaal sal moet word, vas te stel.

Die verskuiwing van die ou lokasie na die nuwe terrein is deur die Minister onderhewig aan die volgende voorbehoudsbepalings goedgekeur:

(1)

D Dat 'n arbiter, deur die twee waardeerders aanbeveel en deur u Raad goedgekeur, aangestel sal word onderhewig aan die goedkeuring van hierdie Departement om die vergoeding te bepaal indien die twee waardeerders nie tot 'n ooreenkoms kan geraak nie.

(2)

Dat die grondslag van die berekening van vergoeding soos volg moet wees: -

(a)

Die waarde van die gebou soos dit staan, en

(b)

E 'n bykomende bedrag by wyse van solatium vir die verlies van die huis wat gesloop word en in oorweging van die ongerief aan die verhuising verbonde .......................................

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(5)

Dat die ou lokasie nie afgeskaf sal word nie alvorens al die Naturelle daarvan na 'n nuwe terrein verskuiwe is en vergoeding volgens 'n skaal wat deur die Minister goedgekeur is, aan al die betrokke eienaars betaal is.'

F In September, 1949, litigation between a number of occupiers of the location on the one hand and respondent Council and the Minister on the other was settled on the following terms:

'(1)

The Native Advisory Board shall have the right to make representations to the second respondent (i.e. the Minister) for the appointment of new valuators;

(2)

All valuations so far made are regarded as...