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The Cape High Court this afternoon issued an order instructing the Minister of Public Works to commission a full independent audit of the allocation of Parliamentary housing in the three Parliamentary villages in Cape Town in which members are accommodated.

The order was issued in settlement of litigation in which the Minister sought to evict two Congress of the People (COPE) MP's, Mr Dennis Bloem and Bishop Lekoba Tolo.

The Minister sought to evict Mr Bloem and Bishop Tolo on the basis that they were occupying "ANC houses".

Under the court order, the Minister is required to make available other three-bedroom houses in Parliamentary villages to both Mr Bloem and Bishop Tolo.

Mr Bloem, who is a COPE party whip, said that he and Bishop Tolo were very pleased with the court's order. He added that he hoped the Minister of Public works would henceforth allocate housing in the Parliamentary villages in a fair and equitable manner, without showing favouritism to any political party.

In an affidavit submitted to the Cape High Court, Mr Bloem showed that the current allocation of Parliamentary houses is significantly skewed in favour of the ANC, both in the sense that it occupies a number of units well in excess of its Parliamentary representation, and in the sense that the lion's share of the most desirable three and four bedroom units is monopolised by the ANC.

For example, in Pelican Park, the village in which Mr Bloem and Bishop Tolo have lived for 15 and 10 years respectively, 41 out of the 43 three bedroom units are occupied by members of the ruling party.

COPE has been demanding a due diligence exercise with respect to Parliamentary housing since May 2009. But it was only the result of the court proceedings that the Minister agreed to conduct an audit.

Mr Bloem is confident that independent audit results will vindicate COPE's position that the allocation is dramatically skewed in favour of the ANC. Mr Bloem expressed the hope that the audit results, expected on the 30th of November, will result in a global re-allocation, affording all parties represented in Parliament their fair share of housing.

Mr Bloem and Bishop Tolo were represented in the litigation by Advocated Michael Osborne and