[7] In 2017, the Western Cape High Court dismissed applications by the land owners to evict the residents of the Marikana occupation.
[8][9] Abahlali baseMjondolo alleged that the evictions were violent, that their members' property was broken and stolen and that they were also unlawful as the City did not have a court order.
[10][11][12][13] This view was later endorsed by legal experts and an article in the Daily Maverick suggested that the City of Cape Town was making reference to a fictitious law to justify the evictions and, also, lying about the fact that the shacks had all been unoccupied before they were demolished.
[14] Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos later wrote that these evictions were "Brutal, inhumane, and totally unlawful".
At that time, the City said that it would begin providing services to the Marikana settlement "after all feasibility studies have been concluded, as well as a public participation process to discuss development options".
[18] The City of Cape Town had argued that the 2013 evictions by its ALIU were legal and did not require a court-order in part because the land was city-owned.