The City of Tshwane deals with the rise of unlawful occupation of land caused by an increasing need for accommodation closer to economic opportunities and social amenities. The University of Pretoria has had a long relation providing legal expertise for securing evictions, and providing temporary emergency accommodation within the requirements of the PIE Act and prevailing jurisprudence which has now culminated in an MoU agreement being enabled through University of Pretoria Policy Hub under Prof Nara Monkam using the PIE project.

The intention of this project is to develop standard operating procedures and guidelines for the City of Tshwane in managing unlawful occupation of land, securing evictions, and providing temporary emergency accommodation, all within the requirements of the PIE Act and prevailing jurisprudence, using the legal expertise provided by the University of Pretoria.

The PIE project aims to tackle the problem faced by the City which has been managing many legal rulings around the PIE Act which need to be translated into a simple standard operating procedure that can assist the City in upholding its commitment to maintain the rule of law while balancing the need to protect its properties from unlawful occupation within available resources.

Prof Gustav Muller an Associate Professor at the Department of Private Law together with the City of Tshwane’s Willie Venter in the Office of the Executive Mayor will coordinate the joint collaboration where other employees of the municipality, students and academics of University off Pretoria, other universities, NGOs and other stakeholders relevant to the project may be included in the project development for its advancement and support.

The expectation from the city is the production of a standard operating procedure that clearly lays out the requirements for City employees in managing unlawful occupation of land, securing evictions, and providing temporary emergency accommodation, all within the requirements of the PIE Act and prevailing jurisprudence. The implementation of this standard operating procedure will ensure that the City is able to effective respond to unlawful land or building occupations, secure evictions, provide temporary emergency accommodation, and in doing so avoid any conflict with the law.

The overall goal of the PIE Project is to develop a standard operating procedure that can be utilised by the city to inform and educate the public about illegal land occupation as well as promote the prevention of illegal evictions. This will be done through publishing of operating procedures for the city’s residence to access through the various communication platforms of the city developed though legal experts such as UP Law’s Prof Gustav Muller. Also, the project will also rope-in post graduate students to conduct research to broaden the scope of the project as well as improve its implementation. As well as produce material which can be published for use within academia and municipalities.

As the project evolves and laws are revised or new ones introduced. The PIE project coordinators will work on revisions of the standard operating procedure based on lessons learnt from implementation, new legal rulings, and new legislation. This will be carried out in the spirit of this joint collaboration. Both the City of Tshwane and University of Pretoria look forward to the impact this project will make towards averting land grabs and prevent illegal evictions. This truly demonstrates research in action.