Court rules that expropriation of Moerane Commission chair's family home by eThekwini Municipality was unlawful

The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday found that the expropriation by the eThekwini Municipality of the family home of Advocate Marumo Moerane SC, was unlawful and invalid. 

Moerane has previously represented Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Thabo Mbeki. He also chaired the Moerane Commission that probed ongoing political killings in KZN.  

Moerane filed a notice of motion in the court against the municipality, the KwaZulu-Natal deeds registry and the Master of the High Court. The home is situated in iNanda and it is where Moerane grew up with his two sisters and their parents.

The deeds registry was ordered to authorise and amend its records and cancel the registration of the property and transfer it into the name of the municipality. 

In his affidavit Moerane said after the passing of his father the home was under his mother’s name as they were married in community of property. However, when his mother passed away in 2002, the home fell upon him and his siblings. Their mother’s estate was not wind up because the Master required all of them to be present. 

He said his sisters are not in the country, one is in Eswatini, and the other lives in the United States.

“For these logistical reasons, the process of winding up was held up for a long time,” he said. 

Moerane stated that he had been responsible for the security and safety of his home and the general upkeep of it.

He said in June 2024, he and his sisters reunited in South Africa after one of them turned 80 years old and this allowed them to attend to their late mother’s estate. He said he gave instructions to attorney Mongezi Xakushe of MD Xakushe Incorporated to attend the Master’s office in Durban to ensure a sibling would be appointed to take control and wind up his mother’s estate. 

“In due course, my sisters and I agreed that I should be appointed as the representative of my late mother’s estate,” he added.

Moerane said he appointed Xakushe to assist with the winding up of the estate. He said his attorney caused a search to be conducted with the office of the KZN deeds registry to verify his mother’s ownership of the property.

 “The deeds search revealed that the ownership of our home was registered in the name of the municipality on May 18, 2016, pursuant to an expropriation and is now held by the municipality,” Moerane explained. 

He said upon enquiring with the municipality, he was informed that the valuation of the property was undertaken on August 20 2014 and the City paid more than R300, 000 to its attorneys, Maseko Mbatha in January 2015. 

“In relation to the expropriation of properties of deceased estates, the Expropriation Act placed additional responsibilities upon the Municipality: to publish in the Gazette and consecutively in local newspapers any notice of intended expropriation. No notice of the intention to expropriate was ever served on me or anyone at our home,” he said. 

Moerane recalled that a certain Mr Maseko contacted him in 2012, informing him that the municipality had identified certain parcels of land for expropriation to provide low-cost housing for deserving people in Durban.

 “I immediately informed Mr Maseko that the immovable property belonged to my family and was awaiting winding up,” he said. 

Moerane said in his affidavit that Maseko never reported back to him. He said the funds paid by the City were embezzled and that it was misled by its attorneys. The motion was not opposed by the City. 

Advocate Credo Mlaba told the High Court that the City was notified of the draft order and that Advocate Moerane was present. 

Judge Sidwell Mngadi granted the order. Moerane was all smiles as Judge Mngadi ruled in his favour. The municipality was further directed to pay the costs of the application on Scale C, including that of the employment of senior counsel. 

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za