�Injustice� leaves woman homeless
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday June 29, 2015 16:51
The 58-year-old, who is now out in the cold and renting a one-roomed house, is living on Ipelegeng after losing her house, including most of her furniture and tuckshop because of her greedy neighbour. She has been from pillar to post with the courts in an attempt to get help; all to no avail.
“After being told to appeal when I was not happy with the judgment in my case last year, my life has been a nightmare. I was called to High Court where I was told that my case resumed, but I was disappointed when I was asked to bring some court proceedings from the previous case at the Magistrate’s Court. I have since been going up and down the courts where I was tossed around like a crazy person with no help,” she said.
Mosweunyane said since her case was at Broadhurst Magistrate’s Court, her attempt to get the proceedings of her case failed as she was told that only her lawyer could be given the documents. She said since she did not have a lawyer, she tried to seek help at Legal Aid where she was told she could get the documents herself.
With a determination to fight for her stolen plot, the woman tried her best to get the documents, moving between the magistrate’s court, legal aid and the High Court.
“At times I feel like giving up, but the thought of losing my home, my children’s home, to another woman pains me. I cannot sleep at night. I have at one point had such stress caused by this situation that I fell sick. The thought that I cannot even get justice pains me the most. I wonder if we, the poor, don’t have access to justice because we cannot afford to pay for lawyers,” she said as tears rolled down her face.
Mosweunyana said some time in November last year, the High Court ordered her to bring the proceedings of her previous case or failure to do so would result in her case being thrown out. She said she felt helpless as trying to get the magistrate court to avail the case file has been a nightmare.
In what may be a case of corrupt practices at the land board, the Tsolamosese neighbour managed to drive her out of her home and occupy the plot. The neighbour even built a new house there.
It is alleged that land board officials colluded with the neighbour to manipulate the legal system that appears to favour the rich against the poor.
The allegation further suggests that Mosweunyana’s signature may have been forged on some documents at the Broadhurst Court to make it appear she consented giving away her land, after her signature was found on the documents.
The land dispossession was swift and cruel when in October 2013 Mosweunyane was thrown out of her hut naked.
“I was shocked when my neighbour barged into my house. At the time I was bathing so she pushed me out of the house while I was naked. What pains me most is that she did all that in front of the police whom she had brought along, but they did not intervene,” she said.
It has since surfaced that the so-called law enforcement officers, who helped Mosweunyane’s neighbour may not be real after Mogoditshane police distanced themselves from the operation.
The now landless Mosweunyane said the ‘police officers’ identified themselves as court bailiffs, although they did not present an order from the court as they were throwing her out.
According to Mosweunyane, her neighbour had tried to kick her out of her yard a few years before, after she was allocated a plot near Mosweunyane, but she called the land board personnel to help.
She said that at the time, the Land Board officials who worked in the sub land board told her neighbour that she could not expand her plot into another person’s plot (Mosweunyane’s plot) as they were two different plots and that all plots were measured according to Land Board regulations.