"I will sleep outside. I will put my furniture here and sleep on top of it. This is my house and I will not be forced out of it." These were the emotional words of a woman who arrived at her Phumlani home Monday to find herself locked out of her house and her possessions outside.
"I will sleep outside. I will put my furniture here and sleep on top of it. This is my house and I will not be forced out of it." These were the emotional words of a woman who arrived at her Phumlani home Monday to find herself locked out of her house and her possessions outside.
A long and bitter dispute involving two women and a man who died 16 years ago had reached boiling point, with the dramatic eviction of the man's wife from the family home. Residents rallied in support of Nontuthuzelo Gxoyiya, 65, as her belongings were removed from the house she had considered her home for the past 21 years.
When Grocott's Mail arrived at the scene Gxoyiya wasn't there, but the police were locked in a stand-off with residents. Chaos had erupted when Sheriff Annerie Wolmarans's team began removing Gxoyiya's furniture from the house and putting it in a neighbour's yard.
Community leaders then stepped in. The sheriff's team had been putting Gxoyiya's furniture and personal possessions in the yard of her next-door neighbour, Ward Councillor Nomhle Ngoqo.
"I agreed to have the things put in my house because I did not want to see her things out on the street," Ngoqo said. "She is a woman who is going through a tough time and I understand and it hurts to see this happening to her."
She exchanged words with Wolmarans, however, saying she had no problem with Gxoyiya's furniture being put in her house, but was angry at what she felt was a lack of respect for her in her own home.
"You did not make any arrangements with me," Ngoqo told Wolmarans. Activist and Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) spokesman Ayanda Kota had spent the day in town, consulting with lawyers on Ngoqo's behalf. He had earlier pleaded with residents to stand by Gxoyiya.
"She will need your support during this hard time," he had told them, urging people to open up their homes and help Gxoyiya move her things into their houses. But as dusk settled on Gxoyiya and her belongings – she had by that time returned from business in town – even Kota lost hope on her behalf.
Having failed to persuade the sheriff's team to wait until the next day before taking action, he then spent time in consultation with a lawyer who was present. When Kota returned to the crowd he broke down in tears as he told them there was nothing further they could do to prevent Gxoyiya's eviction.
The action has its roots in a 21-year-long battle involving two women and the man they both considered their husband. According to court documents Nontuthuzelo was married to Thembisile Gxoyiya in 1974.
In 1991 Thembisile married Vuyiswa Tutu and so, according to the documents, Thembisile was simultaneously married to two women. Thembisile died without a will in 1996, the 2005 judgment states. He had been living in the house in question with Tutu and their two children.
Three years later, the house was registered in Tutu's name. The judgment granted the annulment of Thembisile's second marriage to Tutu, but did not acknowledge Nontuthuzelo as a beneficiary of Thembisile's estate, or as the owner of the title deed of the house they had previously shared – the same house Thembisile subsequently share with Tutu and their children.
The matter had first been heard in the Magistrate's Court before being transferred to the high court in Grahamstown. This week Tutu's lawyer, Mbulelo Nguta, explained to Grocott's Mail that the house had never belonged to Thembisile.
Thembisile and his family had occupied the house under apartheid-era leasehold rights. Nquta said Tutu had bought the house after Thembisile died, and after the property ownership laws changed, because it hadn't belonged to any individual.
He said none of Thembisile's family could claim the house because it had never belonged to him. The eviction order was granted in 2005 and, therefore, there was no reason to apply for another order because it had never been set aside, Nguta said.
Meanwhile Mzuphela Yeko, who had represented Gxoyiya, was backtracking. He said his role had been to reinstate an appeal launched by Gxoyiya's previous attorney. Relying on incomplete documentation, he said he had been under the impression that the property was under Thembisile's name.
"When I checked the estate file of the deceased I discovered that there was no final liquidation and distribution account, hence I was prepared to represent them," he said.
If I had known that the property was bought in 1999 I would not have acted. Tutu's daughter, Siphokazi Gxoyiya, told Grocott's Mail that her mother had left the house after her (Siphokazi's) father died in 1996.
Wolmarans told Grocott's Mail that she felt sorry for Gxoyiya but had been acting on orders from the court. I understand that it is difficult for her but I am the Sheriff. I have to do what the court says," Wolma"rans said.
She said many of Gxoyiya's things had already been packed up when her team arrived, as if she had already prepared to leave. Gxoyiya did not sleep with her belongings on the street Monday night. Kind neighbours helped move her belongings into their houses and eventually talked her into staying with them.
The saga continues, however, as she seeks out other legal options.
Why Nontuthuzelo Gxoyiya lost her case
A 2005 judgment regarding Gxoyiya's attempt to have the house transferred to her name, as a beneficiary of her late husband's estate, reads as follows: This property had been acquired by the deceased from the fourth respondent on 17 January 1990 under leasehold rights. The leasehold rights was the land tenure system which had been brought about by the Black Community Development Act 4 of 1984 which was released on 30 June 1991 by section 72 (1) of the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act… The 1991 Act paved the way for the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991…
