Administrator, Cape, v Ntshwaqela

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Administrator, Cape, and Another v Ntshwaqela and Others (1989)

What the case was about
- A South African appeal in the Appellate Division on 7 November 1989, with judgment on 30 November 1989.
- The case involved the Administrator of the Cape and the Minister of Police (the heads of the Cape Provincial Administration and the South African Police) appealing a court order.
- The respondents were squatters who had occupied land partly owned by a local authority and partly privately owned. After meetings among the owners, the CPA, and the SAP, the squatters and their belongings were cleared from the site and moved to a township, with transport provided by the CPA.
- The lower court ordered the owners, the CPA, and the SAP to restore the squatters to undisturbed possession of the sites.

What the court decided
- The CPA and SAP were found to be co-spoliators with the landowners, meaning they were jointly liable for the removal of the squatters.
- The order from the lower court, when applied to the facts, was purely prohibitory (it told the parties not to prevent the squatters from resuming possession). There was no requirement for the owners or the CPA/SAP to do anything new, so the argument that the order was impossible to perform did not hold.
- The mandament van spolie (the spoliation order) had correctly been granted against the appellants, so the appeal was dismissed and the previous decision was confirmed. This followed the earlier Ntshwaqela v Chairman, Western Cape Regional Services Council decision.

Key legal points explained
- Judgment vs order: A “judgment” has both reasoning and the final order; the actual order is a separate document signed by the registrar and is what can be appealed. The order sets out clearly what must be done or not done.
- How to interpret a judgment or order: Read the document as a whole to understand the court’s intention. If the meaning is clear, no extra facts can change it. If unclear, surrounding circumstances can help explain it.
- Function of the order: The order is the executable part of the judgment, showing precisely what the court requires.
- Why spoliation exists: No one may take the law into their own hands. Co-spoliators are liable as joint wrongdoers. An order must be capable of being carried out; impossibility is a fact question. When restoring possession of immovable property, the order may be partial or prohibitory (such as requiring someone to leave or to refrain from blocking possession).