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The city filed eviction papers on Wednesday
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. Picture: Twitter / @geordinhl
The City of Cape Town has approached the courts in an attempt to evict the remaining foreigners who have been illegally occupying the Wingfield tent and Paint City in Bellville.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced on Wednesday that the city had filed papers to evict the remaining 360 foreigners who had been illegally occupying the areas since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
He said they had been offered alternative living arrangements, and while some accepted the offers, others refused, demanding that they be relocated from South Africa to Canada.
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The city filed eviction papers on Wednesday.
“Residents of Kensington will know exactly where we are because you will see right behind us, the infamous Wingfield tent, which has been here since Covid,” said Hill-Lewis.
“We have now gone through the process of carefully drafting these evicting papers, and they are being filed in court today. This means we can finally start the process at this Wingfield tent and Paint City in Bellville.”
Operation New Broom targets foreigners
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the city’s move was a result of the department’s newly launched Operation New Broom, the latest technology-driven initiative aimed at arresting, convicting, and deporting undocumented foreigners occupying public spaces.
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“There were numerous offers made in cooperation with international agencies to relocate many of the people in these areas. Many of them took up the offers, but some have refused, and today we’re saying, enough is enough,” said Schreiber.
“The Department of Home Affairs recently launched Operation New Broom to signal our commitment to enforcing the rule of law when it comes to illegal immigrants occupying public spaces.”
On the District Six open land, Hill-Lewis said: “This land is owned by the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development, and is supposed to be used for the grievously slow-moving District Six restitution. I write to that Department frequently to warn them of the growing number of unlawful structures on their land.”
Last month, 25 suspects were arrested while occupying the land.
Schreiber said at the time: “As with everything else we do, Operation New Broom is guided by our commitment to the rule of law. It is this commitment that both motivates us to do more to combat illegality, and to uphold due process and legal compliance in the process.”
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