Registrar of Deeds Cape Town v Khoi Khoi Zan and others

• Jurisdiction: http://justis.com/jurisdiction/166,South Africa
• Judge: Ncube J
• Judgment Date: 20 April 2023
• Citation: 2023 JDR 1223 (LCC)
• Hearing Date: 24 November 2022
• Docket Number: LCC100/2019
• Court: Land Claims Court

Ncube J:

2023 JDR 1223 p2

Ncube J

Introduction:

[1]

This is opposed application for a rescission. As the application is brought out of time, the applicant has simultaneously brought an application for the condonation of the late filing of the rescission application. The condonation is likewise opposed. I shall first deal with the facts of the original application in which the order sought to be rescinded, was granted by default.

Factual background:

[2]

Mr Simon Pasiya, ("Mr Pasiya") is the paramount Chief of the Khoi Khoi Zan communities. Khoi Khoi Zan communities were scattered in many areas in the Western and Eastern Cape before the advent of the Group Areas Act. [1] Those communities were resident in places like Bizana, Flagstaff, Libode, Lusikisiki, Ngoleleni, Port St John's, Qumbu, Umtata etc. These communities were forcefully removed from their places by the apartheid regime.

[3]

The apartheid government created an entity, known as the Citizen Housing League White Group ("the Housing League"). This entity was created as a civic non-governmental institution created with the view of alleviating the plight of the so-called poor Afrikaners. A number of properties expropriated and seized from blacks, were first registered in the name of the Housing League. In fact, the Housing League was created for the housing needs of white persons and Afrikaners in particular. Properties seized from the Khoi Khoi Zan were given piecemeal to whites. To date, many properties seized from blacks are still in the name of the Housing League. The Housing League kept on changing its name at the Companies & Intellectual Property

2023 JDR 1223 p3

Ncube J

Registration Office (hereinafter as "CIPRO"). With the coming into existence of the democratic government, the entity known as "Communicare NPC" which is the first respondent in the original application, took over the ownership of many properties which were previously registered in the name of the Housing League.

[4]

Communicare is renting out certain properties and it evicts those who fail to pay rent. Communicare have about 3374 properties which it rents out to various tenants. In 1998 and 2016 Mr Pasiya, on behalf of dispossessed Khoi Khoi Zan communities, lodged claims for the restoration of the dispossessed land. Most of the properties owned and registered in the name of Communicare and which it is renting out, are subjects of the pending land claims.

[5]

In the original application, the Khoi Khoi Zan sought an interdict against the Communicare, restraining it from evicting people from properties which are subject of a land claim. The order which is sought to be rescinded, is an interdict in the form of mandamus, in which the Registrar of Deeds was compelled to produce the documents which were requested by Khoi Khoi Zan in a letter addressed by their legal representative to the Registrar of Deeds. The letter was dated the 9th of December 2020. The order was granted by default as there was no appearance on behalf of the Registrar of Deeds.

[6]

The order was granted on 29 November 2021. The documentation to be produced related to the full list of properties registered in the name of the Housing League which are in excess of 3374. The required documentation had to show the current and past registered...