An 11th-hour legal challenge has delayed the eviction of 161 people from Transnet-owned land alongside the N1 in Cape Town, extending a dispute over public safety, property rights, and emergency accommodation.

The Western Cape High Court ordered the occupiers in July to leave the properties by 30 September. Judge Derek Wille subsequently refused their application for leave to appeal on 28 September, after which housing advocacy organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi approached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) directly. The latest application has paused enforcement of the eviction for now.

Some residents say they have lived on the properties for more than a decade, while many of those included in the court proceedings were described as undocumented foreign nationals.

The City of Cape Town has supported the eviction, arguing that the occupation has contributed to serious safety problems in the surrounding area. It submitted evidence to the court concerning muggings, attacks on cyclists, cable theft, vandalism, drug dealing, and other crime around the properties. The court also conducted an inspection of the site before granting the eviction order.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the occupation had placed an “enormous strain on City and SAPS resources”, adding that surrounding communities had been affected by attacks on cyclists and other criminal activity. The City has warned that the latest appeal could delay the eviction for months or potentially years.

Ndifuna Ukwazi disputes the suggestion that the identified occupiers can be held responsible for criminal activity in the area. It argues that there is insufficient evidence directly connecting individual residents to the alleged crimes and that allegations of criminality should not remove the protections afforded to people facing eviction.

At the centre of the appeal is the question of emergency accommodation. Ndifuna Ukwazi argues that the eviction could leave vulnerable residents, including children, elderly people, and people with disabilities, homeless. Judge Wille found that alternative accommodation was an important consideration but was not an absolute prerequisite for an eviction, and that insufficient evidence had been presented to show that the occupiers would necessarily be left homeless.

Transnet, meanwhile, has said recovering the land is important for future port and logistics development in Cape Town. The SCA application means that the immediate eviction has been halted while the latest stage of the legal battle runs its course.