By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Durban : A South African whose husband is of Indian origin Wednesday won a case at the Equality Court here against a landlord who reserved his block of apartments for use by members of the white community only.
The owner of the Dunmarsh Apartments in the seaside town of Amanzimtoti and lessee Bronwyn Ellen Gerber reached a settlement that was made an order of the court in terms of which the owner, S.T. Evenwel, will pay Gerber 10,000 rands (about $1,500).
The court also ruled that a clause in the lease agreement specifically reserving the occupation of the block for white skinned people be scrapped.
Gerber, who is white, entered into an agreement with Evenwel, also white, to hire an apartment in the block in June but Evenwel reneged on this when Gerber noticed the clause in the lease agreement and informed him that her husband, who was not named, was of Indian origin.
Despite having accepted her deposit of 2,000 rands, Evenwel told Gerber that other tenants were complaining about her husband being Indian.
Legal commentators here said this type of agreement, which was a requirement in the apartheid era when residential areas were legally separated for different race groups, would not hold up in the new democratic order in the country.
Evenwel, who acknowledged that his actions were unconstitutional, has also been ordered by the court to put up a notice at the apartment block to inform all tenants that the discriminatory clause was unconstitutional and could not be enforced.
The region around Durban is home to almost three quarters of the 1.2 million South African Indians descended from the original settlers who arrived mainly as indentured labourers in sugarcane farms from 1860 onwards.
For decades, the people of Indian origin, like the coloured mixed race and majority African citizens of the country, were restricted to a few residential areas by the apartheid-era Group Areas Act, while the bulk of residential land was reserved for the white community.