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PRESS
STATEMENT
STREET PHOTOGRAPHER WINS HIGH COURT INTERDICT AGAINST DURBAN MUNICIPALITY
25 October 2006
StreetNet International welcomes the High Court Interdict granted by Judge H. Msimang today in the Durban and Coast Local Division of the High Court of South Africa, that pending the final determination of the proceedings in the review application,
- the Municipality and its law enforcement officers are interdicted from interfering in any manner whatsoever with (Khehla Hezekiel Vilakazi) so long as he is engaged in photography for reward on the sea-shore under the control of the Municipality;
-
the Municipality and its law enforcement officers are interdicted from
confiscating or impounding the photographic equipment in the possession of (Vilakazi).
This interdict comes after
many hard-fought battles between the Durban municipality and street traders
(including street barbers and now street photographers) since the initiation of
massive crackdowns against street traders in terms of the EThekwini Public Realm
Management Plan in May 2005, in contravention of the provisions of Durban’s
Informal Economy Policy (adopted in 2001).
Ever since abandoning the Informal economy Policy, StreetNet has been of
the view that the Durban Metro Police harassing street vendors (under the
instruction of the Business Support Department) without due regard to the
content of the actual laws in force.
According to the court
papers, “the Municipality is not empowered to require that informal traders
have permits. That much is apparent
from the Constitution and s 6A(1)(c)(i) of the Businesses Act.
But even if it is empowered to provide for permits ….. the Rule of Law
requires that such procedure, if any, be prescribed by law.
There is no evidence that the Municipality has made any such law.
Despite this it is evident that it enforces its own extra-legal or
internal procedures. This
“gate-keeping has the effect that many impoverished people are kept from
earning a lawful income simply because their appearance or the activity they
seek to engage in, is out of sync with the image that the city fathers seek to
portray of Durban as a glamorous first world “fun in the sun”
city.”
It is a victory for the 25
000 street vendors of Durban, and those in the rest of South Africa, that
Vilakazi has been granted this interim relief while waiting for the legality of
the procedures used by the municipality to be tested in the High Court.
Issued by: Pat Horn
International Co-ordinator
` StreetNet International
Tel.031 307 4038, 201 3527 or 076 706 5282
e-mail: stnet@iafrica.com, phaps@netactive.co.za