In April 2025 the Supreme Court of Appeal held that, where an application is made to evict unlawful occupiers from land or premises, the right of the unlawful occupiers to earn a living is a relevant consideration. The order of eviction was granted and the City was obliged to provide land on which the evicted waste pickers could carry on their activities. The municipality, on appeal, sought to amend the order so that the occupants were not entitled to carry on their waste-picking activities on the allocated land.
Waste pickers eke out a living extracting recyclable materials from waste and transport it to the land on which they have built shacks and reside with their families in order to sort, clear and store the material in industrial bags with a view to selling the stored material to recycling companies. The dispute was whether the occupiers could continue to earn a living from the property to which they were removed.
The Prevention of Illegal Eviction from Unlawful Occupation of Land Act of 1988 (PIE Act) requires the municipality, when people are evicted, to make alternative land available where it is just and equitable to do so. The Act respects the constitutional rights of the occupiers, particularly the vulnerable amongst them. The courts are empowered to exercise a broad discretion to ensure that the evictions are conducted in a just and equitable manner. The right of occupiers to earn a living is a relevant factor to be considered by a court in terms of the PIE Act. The City’s contention that the waste recycling conducted on the premises was unlawful was not accepted. The waste pickers were not recyclers but reclaimers who would collect and sell waste material to recyclers, which is not against the municipal zoning of the area of the land.
The appeal was dismissed which means the waste pickers could conduct their activities on the land allocated to them.