Case Law[2023] ZASCA 7South Africa
City of Cape Town v Commando and Others (1303/2021) [2023] ZASCA 7; [2023] 2 All SA 23 (SCA); 2023 (4) SA 465 (SCA) (6 February 2023)
Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa
6 February 2023
Headnotes
Summary: Constitutional law – right to emergency housing – constitutional duty of municipality to provide temporary emergency housing – whether case made out to find emergency housing programme and its implementation unconstitutional – whether municipality has a duty to provide temporary emergency housing in a specific location – consideration of a just and equitable order.
Judgment
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## City of Cape Town v Commando and Others (1303/2021) [2023] ZASCA 7; [2023] 2 All SA 23 (SCA); 2023 (4) SA 465 (SCA) (6 February 2023)
City of Cape Town v Commando and Others (1303/2021) [2023] ZASCA 7; [2023] 2 All SA 23 (SCA); 2023 (4) SA 465 (SCA) (6 February 2023)
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sino date 6 February 2023
THE
SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
### JUDGMENT
JUDGMENT
Reportable
Case
no: 1303/2021
In the matter between:
CITY OF CAPE
TOWN APPELLANT
and
CHARNELL
COMMANDO FIRST
RESPONDENT
GERALDINE STEPHANIE
CUPIDO
SECOND
RESPONDENT
NORMAN ANDREW
CUPIDO
THIRD
RESPONDENT
GICILLE VANESSA
COMMANDO
FOURTH RESPONDENT
WILLEM NEL
FIFTH
RESPONDENT
MEESHADE JACOBA NEL
SIXTH
RESPONDENT
DAPHNE NEL
SEVENTH
RESPONDENT
PRISCILLA NEL
EIGHTH
RESPONDENT
DYLAN NEL
NINTH
RESPONDENT
MA-AIDA ABELS
TENTH
RESPONDENT
SULAIMAN GOLIATH
ELEVENTH
RESPONDENT
FAIZA FISHER
TWELFTH
RESPONDENT
GEORGE FARIA RODRIGUES
THIRTEENTH RESPONDENT
NASHIET ABELS
FOURTEENTH
RESPONDENT
CHRASHANNA SMITH
FIFTEENTH
RESPONDENT
DELIA SMITH
SIXTEENTH
RESPONDENT
BRENDA SARAH SMITH
SEVENTEENTH
RESPONDENT
MACHAL SMITH
EIGHTEENTH
RESPONDENT
MEGAN SMITH
NINETEENTH
RESPONDENT
ROSELINE SMITH
TWENTIETH
RESPONDENT
CHESLYN SMITH
TWENTY-FIRST
RESPONDENT
RASHIEDA SMITH
TWENTY-SECOND
RESPONDENT
MARK NEIL SMITH
TWENTY-THIRD
RESPONDENT
MOGAMAT TAURIQ SMITH
TWENTY-FOURTH RESPONDENT
GRAHAM BEUKES
TWENTY-FIFTH
RESPONDENT
SOFIE MASILO
TWENTY-SIXTH
RESPONDENT
WOODSTOCK
HUB (PTY) LTD
TWENTY-SEVENTH RESPONDENT
Neutral
citation:
City of Cape Town v
Commando and Others
(1303/2021)
[2023] ZASCA 7 (6 February 2023)
Coram:
ZONDI, NICHOLLS and MABINDLA-BOQWANA JJA and
GOOSEN and SIWENDU AJJA
Heard:
14 November 2022
Delivered:
This judgment was handed down electronically by
circulation to the parties’ legal representatives by email,
publication on
the Supreme Court of Appeal website and release to
SAFLII. The date and time for hand-down is deemed to be 11h00 on 6
February
2023.
Summary:
Constitutional law – right to
emergency housing – constitutional duty of municipality to
provide temporary emergency
housing – whether case made out to
find emergency housing programme and its implementation
unconstitutional – whether
municipality has a duty to provide
temporary emergency housing in a specific location –
consideration of a just and equitable
order.
### ORDER
ORDER
On
appeal from:
Western Cape Division of
the High Court, Cape Town (Sher J, sitting as court of first
instance): judgment reported
sub nom
Commando and Others v Woodstock Hub (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2021] ZAWCHC 179
;
[2021] 4 All SA 408
(WCC)
.
1
The appeal is upheld, with no order as to costs.
2
The high court’s order is set aside and replaced with the
following:
‘
1
The City of Cape Town must provide the
occupiers and their dependants with temporary emergency
accommodation
in a location as near as possible to where they currently reside, erf
10626, Bromwell Street, Woodstock (the property),
on or before 30 May
2023, provided that they are still resident at the property and have
not voluntarily vacated it.
2
The date on which the occupiers are required to vacate the property
is extended to 30 June
2023.
3
There is no order as to costs.’
### JUDGMENT
JUDGMENT
Mabindla-Boqwana
JA (Zondi and Nicholls JJA and Goosen and Siwendu AJJA concurring):
Introduction
[1]
Access
to adequate housing remains one of the major challenges in South
Africa. It is no secret that our major urban areas face
a desperate
shortage of adequate housing, exacerbated by increasing urbanisation.
Along with that, historical patterns of settlement
continue to
persist. The disparities between ethnic communities are particularly
pronounced in Cape Town, due to highly skewed
historical spatial
planning policies, which were based on racial discrimination and
preference.
[1]
Twenty-eight
years into our constitutional democracy, poor households, mainly
black African and Coloured, continue to live in the
outskirts of Cape
Town, due to high property prices and government rates and taxes.
They are, thus, forced to commute, in many
instances for long
distances, to their places of employment using public transport. This
phenomenon is not unique to Cape Town.
It is a challenge replicated
in many South African cities.
[2]
Each
city has been shaped by particular dynamics of urban development. The
forced removal of black communities from inner city areas
and the
resultant dislocation is one such dynamic. Despite these painful
examples of historical social control, some parts of the
inner city
areas remained places where poor communities continued to live.
Woodstock and Salt River, situated in the inner city
of Cape Town,
are two adjacent areas where a number of Coloured households were
able to resist displacement. However, the gentrification
[2]
and commercialisation of Cape Town city centre has been highlighted
as one of the threats to the communities still residing in
these
areas.
[3]
[3]
The appellant, the City of Cape Town (the
City), acknowledges that it must ‘transform its spatial and
social legacy into a
more integrated and compact city with mixed-use
zoning areas close to public transport nodes, which will bring
residents closer
to their places of work and will offer opportunities
to break down social barriers’. This will require ‘significant
additional capital investment, together with a fundamental
reconsideration of how to deliver more housing, more rapidly, in a
more integrated, manner.’ The City estimates that between 2012
and 2032 some 650 000 households in greater Cape Town would
be in
need of support from the government in respect of housing. To this
end, it has introduced a number of socio-economic programmes.
[4]
An immediate challenge is the need to
provide housing for people facing homelessness, due to crises such as
natural disasters and
evictions. The latter is the issue in the
present appeal. Eviction disputes feature in our courts on a daily
basis, particularly
in these challenging economic times.
[5]
As
this Court held in
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight Properties
39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
,
[4]
‘[t]he right of access to adequate housing cannot be seen in
isolation. It has to be seen in the light of its close relationship
with other socio-economic rights, all read together in the setting of
the Constitution as a whole. It is irrefutable that the State
is
obliged to take positive action to meet the needs of those living in
extreme conditions of poverty, homelessness or intolerably
inadequate
housing. What is in dispute in the present case, as is frequently the
case in disputes concerning housing, is the extent
of the State’s
obligation in this regard. This usually telescopes into an enquiry
concerning the State’s resources
to meet its constitutional
obligations.’
[6]
After
the Constitutional Court’s decision in
Government
of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Grootboom and Others
,
[5]
it became settled that the State is constitutionally obliged ‘to
provide relief for people who have no access to land, no
roof over
their heads, and who are living in intolerable conditions or crisis
situations’.
[6]
Accordingly, the provision of emergency accommodation by the
government forms part of the right of access to adequate housing
entrenched in s 26 of the Constitution.
[7]
The
central issue in this appeal is whether that constitutional
obligation extends to making temporary emergency accommodation
available at a specific location. The Western Cape Division of the
High Court, Cape Town (the high court) made an order, inter alia,
compelling the City to provide the first to twenty-sixth respondents
(the occupiers) and their dependents residing with them with
temporary emergency accommodation or ‘transitional housing’
[7]
in Woodstock, Salt River or the Inner-City Precinct. The order of the
high court reads as follows:
‘
1
It is declared that the
[City’s] emergency housing programme and its implementation,
in
relation to persons who may be rendered homeless pursuant to their
eviction in the inner City and its surrounds, and in Woodstock
and
Salt River in particular
, is
unconstitutional.
2
The [City] is directed to provide the [occupiers] and those of their
dependents
as may be living with them at the time, with “
temporary”
emergency accommodation or “transitional” housing in
Woodstock, Salt River or the Inner-City Precinct
(as defined in
the Affordable Housing Prospectus for the Woodstock, Salt River and
Inner-City Precinct which was issued on 28 September
2017),
in a
location which is as near as feasibly possible to where the
[occupiers]
are currently residing at erf 10626, Bromwell
Street, Woodstock;
within 12 months of the date of this Order.
3
The [City] is directed to deliver a report to the Court, within 4
months of the
date of this Order, which is confirmed on affidavit, in
which it details the emergency accommodation or “transitional”
housing that it will make available to the [occupiers], and the
location thereof and the date when it will be made available, and
in
which it deals with the proximity of such accommodation or housing to
1) erf 10626, Bromwell Street, Woodstock and 2) to public
and private
transport, and educational and medical and health facilities, and
explains why the particular location and form of
accommodation/housing has been selected, and what steps were taken by
it to engage the [occupiers] regarding the provision of accommodation
or housing in compliance with this Order.
4
The [occupiers] may serve and file affidavits, if any, dealing with
the contents
of the report referred to in the preceding paragraph,
within 10 court days of the date of the service and filing of the
aforesaid
report, whereafter the matter may be re-enrolled on a date
to be determined by the Registrar in consultation with the presiding
Judge, for determination as to such further and/or additional relief
as may be necessary or appropriate.
5
Pending the final outcome of this matter, execution of the Order
which was granted
for the eviction of the [occupiers] (as extended)
shall be suspended.
6
The [City] shall be
liable for the costs of this application, including the costs
of two
counsel (insofar as two counsel may have been employed).’ (My
emphasis.)
[8]
The City contends that this order is
inappropriate. Firstly, it offends the doctrine of separation of
powers by trespassing into
the heartland of policy-laden and
polycentric matters of housing delivery. Secondly, its effect is
overbroad. According to the
City, the courts have no knowledge of, or
are they required to know, the wide-ranging housing needs confronting
the City, the socio-economic
and other competing conditions to be met
by the City, the City’s budget devoted thereto, the land
available, the economies
of scale and what informs allocation of
resources to these needs and for housing, and in which areas. The
court cannot, thus, dictate
to the City in which location a
particular housing programme is to be implemented.
[9]
The
City further contends that it had identified and adopted a policy
that social housing was the most appropriate form of housing
for the
inner city. Despite this, the high court ordered it to make available
alternative emergency housing in the inner city for
the occupiers.
This amounted to the court instructing the City to allocate and spend
its housing budget differently. Yet, it is,
exclusively, the
government’s executive function and domain to determine how
public resources are to be drawn upon and re-ordered.
[8]
[10]
The occupiers, on the other hand, view the
order as an appropriate intervention by the high court to protect
their rights, which
they say have been infringed by the unreasonable
and irrational conduct of the City. They fault the City for providing
temporary
emergency accommodation in informal settlements and on the
outskirts of the city only.
Litigation history
[11]
The high court’s order was preceded
by protracted litigation between the occupiers and the twenty-seventh
respondent, Woodstock
Hub (Pty) Ltd (Woodstock Hub). On 30 June 2014,
Woodstock Hub gave notice to the occupiers to vacate the premises it
had bought
from Messrs Reza Syms and Erefaan Syms (the Syms
brothers), situated at erf 10626, Bromwell Street, Salt River, Cape
Town (the
property).
[12]
The occupiers had rented units in the
property from the Syms brothers for amounts ranging from R300 to
R2000 per month. Some of
them had lived in the property for many
years. In July 2015, Woodstock Hub launched five separate eviction
applications in the
high court against the occupiers in terms of s 4
of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of
Land Act
19 of 1998 (PIE). The applications were later consolidated.
[13]
On 17 March 2016, Hlophe JP granted an
eviction order by agreement between Woodstock Hub and the occupiers.
In terms of this order,
the occupiers would vacate the property on or
before 31 July 2016, failing which an eviction would be effected by
the sheriff on
1 August 2016. Some of the occupiers vacated the
property. Those remaining in occupation, however, brought an
application to vary
the terms of the order granted by Hlophe JP, by
extending the date to vacate the property to 31 November 2016.
Weinkove AJ dismissed
that application.
[14]
On
15 August 2016, Woodstock Hub and the occupiers concluded a deed of
settlement, which was made an order of court by Weinkove
AJ. In terms
of this order, the remaining occupiers agreed to vacate the property
on or before 9 September 2016. The occupiers
allege that the two
eviction orders were granted without the respective courts satisfying
themselves that it was just and equitable
to do so after taking into
account all the relevant factors as required by the PIE. It has been
held that even when parties consent
to an eviction order, judicial
officers have a duty to conduct an enquiry in terms of the PIE,
because of the risk of homelessness
that may result from eviction.
[9]
There is, however, no appeal against these orders.
[15]
While the City was cited in the proceedings
between Woodstock Hub and the occupiers, no order was sought against
it to provide the
occupiers with temporary accommodation, should this
be necessary, in the event of the occupiers’ eviction from the
property.
The City, accordingly, did not participate in the
proceedings or discussions prior to the granting of the eviction
orders. It is
also not clear whether the two eviction orders were
served on the City.
[16]
The remaining occupiers terminated the
services of their erstwhile attorneys and engaged their current
attorneys, a non-profit organisation
specialising in housing
litigation. In September 2016, the current attorneys initiated
discussions with the City concerning the
imminent risk of
homelessness faced by the occupiers. These discussions did not result
in an outcome acceptable to the occupiers.
Consequently, in September
2016, they launched an application which is the subject of this
appeal.
[17]
The notice of motion dated 20 September
2016 was framed in two parts. In Part A, the occupiers sought an
order suspending the execution
of the eviction orders pending the
determination of the relief sought in Part B. This aspect was
settled.
[18]
In Part B the occupiers sought, inter alia,
the following orders:
‘
2.
It is declared that the [City]
is under a constitutional duty to provide the [occupiers]
and their
dependents residing with them with
temporary
emergency accommodation in a location as near as possible to the
property where the [occupiers] currently reside
at erf 10626, Bromwell Street, Cape Town (“the property”);
3.
The [City] is directed to make available the temporary emergency
accommodation referred
to in paragraph 2 above to the [occupiers]
within 3 (three) months of the date of this order;
4.
It is declared that the [occupiers] may remain in occupation of their
existing homes
on the property pending compliance by the [City] with
paragraph 3 of this order;
5.
The [City] is directed to
deliver a report to this Court within 2 (two) months of
the date of
this order, confirmed [on] affidavit, detailing the accommodation
that it will make available to the [occupiers], when
such
accommodation will be available, the nature and proximity of such
accommodation and explaining why the particular location
and form of
accommodation has been selected. The report must also set out the
steps taken by the [City] during the two months before
the report is
filed to meaningfully engage with the [occupiers] and/or the
[occupiers’] attorneys regarding the provision
of temporary
emergency accommodation to the [occupiers].’ (My emphasis.)
[19]
The
relief to be provided accommodation at a location as near as possible
to the property in which the occupiers resided, is in
line with the
orders granted in previous cases, such as in
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight Properties
39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
.
[10]
The motivation behind those orders is that ‘in deciding on the
locality, the government must have regard to the relationship
between
the location of residents and their places of employment,’
[11]
schools and other amenities.
[20]
The
City states that it responded to the relief sought by assessing the
composition of various family units involved. It facilitated
their
applications for social housing and considered them. It advised the
occupiers’ attorneys that five families would qualify
for
social and/or GAP
[12]
housing
and should apply immediately. The City offered emergency housing at
Wolwerivier, which is approximately 30 km from the
property, for the
remaining family units. This consisted of 26.5 m
2
of prefabricated light gauge steel structures with corrugated
cladding and other basic amenities. Notably, the Wolwerivier
structures
were accepted as suitable within the City’s
available resources by the Constitutional Court in
Baron
and Others v Claytile (Pty) Ltd and Another
.
[13]
[21]
The occupiers objected to being
accommodated at Wolwerivier because of the distance from the
property. They enquired about a list
of properties in the inner city,
including the site at Pickwick Street in Salt River (Pickwick), which
they said could be considered
for emergency housing. The City advised
them that Pickwick had already been allocated as a transitional area
for housing of beneficiaries
who needed to be moved from an informal
settlement in Pine Road, which was one of the sites earmarked for
social housing, while
it was being developed. The City then offered
emergency housing to all of the families, despite the fact that
several could potentially
qualify for home loans. The City also
provided information regarding the bus routes and prices.
[22]
During 2017, the City’s Mayoral
Committee Member for Transport and Urban Development (Mayoral
Committee Member) made a public
speech about the planned social and
affordable housing developments in the inner city. He mentioned the
City’s intention
to achieve spatial transformation by providing
those facing emergencies with temporary housing as close as possible
to their places
of work or at least transportation. He further
mentioned two sites, namely, Pickwick and St James Street in Salt
River (St James),
which were reserved for transitional housing to
accommodate residents moved from Pine Road and Salt River Market
areas, and were
identified for social housing development
respectively. In one of the media statements, the Mayoral Committee
Member remarked that
‘the development of the Pickwick site
represents a new approach in terms of how the City intends to tackle
the urgent demand
for housing by those families who are displaced or
evicted from their homes due to rapid development, among others’.
[23]
On 27 September 2017, the City issued the
Affordable Housing Prospectus for the Woodstock, Salt River and
Inner-City Precinct (the
Prospectus) in which it identified
Woodstock, Salt River and the surrounds as ideal locations for the
development of affordable
housing, as they were well located, being
close to public transport and employment opportunities. For this
purpose, five sites
of the City’s available land were
identified.
[24]
In December 2017, motivated by these
developments, the occupiers applied to amend their notice of motion
in terms of rule 28 in
the following terms:
‘
1.
It is declared that the housing
programme of the [City] and its implementation in terms
of the City
of Cape Town Integrated Human Settlements: Five Year Plan is
inconsistent with the [City]’s constitutional and
statutory
obligations to the extent that:
1.1
it fails to provide
the [occupiers] and people
living in
Woodstock and Salt River
who are at risk of homelessness and in a
crisis situation due to eviction from their homes with
access to
transitional housing or temporary emergency accommodation in the
immediate City centre and surrounds
.
2.
It is declared that the [City] is
under a constitutional duty
to
provide the [occupiers] and their dependents residing with them with
temporary emergency accommodation or transitional housing:
2.1
in the Woodstock, Salt River and inner city precinct
as
identified in the Prospectus for Affordable Housing in the Woodstock
and Salt River Precinct issued by the [City] on 28 September
2017;
and
2.2
in a location
as near as possible to the property where the
[occupiers] currently reside at erf 10626
, Bromwell Street, Cape
Town (“the property”)
3.
The [City] is directed to make available temporary emergency
accommodation or transitional
housing referred to in paragraph 2
above to the [occupiers] within 12 (twelve) months of the date of
this order.
4.
The [City] is ordered to comply with its constitutional obligations
as declared in
this order.
5.
The [City] is directed to
deliver a report to this Court within 3 (three) months of
the date of
this order, confirmed on affidavit, detailing the emergency
accommodation or transitional housing
that
it will make available to the [occupiers] in the Woodstock, Salt
River and inner city precinct
, when
such accommodation will be available, the proximity of such
accommodation and explaining why the particular location and
form of
accommodation has been selected. The report must also set out the
steps taken by the [City] during the three months before
the report
is filed to meaningfully engage with the [occupiers] and/or the
[occupiers’] attorneys regarding the provision
of temporary
emergency accommodation or transitional housing to the [occupiers].’
(My emphasis.)
[25]
It is evident from the envisaged amended
notice of motion that the relief sought had changed markedly. It
introduced a direct constitutional
challenge against the City’s
housing programme and its implementation, on the basis that it failed
to provide for temporary
emergency housing in the inner city and the
surrounds. In addition, it sought a declarator that the City was
under a constitutional
duty to provide temporary emergency
accommodation to the occupiers in a specified area of either,
Woodstock, Salt River and Inner-City
Precinct, and that it should be
directed to do so.
[26]
The City had previously adopted an
Integrated Human Settlements: Five Year Plan (the Five-Year Plan),
which was reviewed annually
to ensure that it considered a response
to any significant changes in the micro- and macro-environments that
may affect delivery.
The occupiers alleged that the City’s new
approach to housing delivery announced in 2017 constituted a
volte-face and an
admission that the Five-Year Plan was ‘in
need of change in order to address displacement of persons such as
the [occupiers]
due [to] gentrification in the inner [c]ity areas of
Woodstock and Salt River’.
[27]
The City objected to the amendment of the
relief sought on a number of bases, including that it introduced a
completely new relief.
It alleged that it had met the relief
initially sought by offering temporary emergency accommodation to the
occupiers in Wolwerivier.
When the Wolwerivier offer was rejected, it
identified land in Maitland. This option was not pursued because of
objections from
the community residing there.
[28]
The City thereafter offered the occupiers
land in Kampies, Philippi, which is approximately 15 km from the
property. In terms of
this offer, each household would receive one
plot of 36 m
2
with building materials for 18 m
2
structures. According to the City, the services will consist of
running water and waterborne sanitation (ie flushing toilets) of
1:5
used on a communal basis, with five families given a key to a
particular toilet for use by them. A portable flush toilet will
be
made available to the single disabled person(s). Solid waste removal
would be provided per household, collected once a week
from a
communal container available on site. There will be no electricity
provided. The Kampies site will be upgraded six months
from the date
of offer to 26 m
2
concrete
slab structures, electrified by Eskom and that access to waterborne
sanitation and a basin would be provided to each household.
All three
categories of schools – pre-primary, primary and high schools –
are within 3 km of the site in Hanover Park.
[29]
The hearing of the application for the
amendment took place on 13 August 2018 before Sher J, who allowed the
amendment. The amended
notice of motion was ‘effected’ on
13 September 2018.
The legal framework
[30]
Section 26 of the Constitution provides
that:
‘
(1)
Everyone has the right to have access to
adequate housing.
(2)
The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within
its available resources,
to achieve the progressive realisation of
this right.
(3)
No one may be evicted from their home,
or have their home demolished, without an order of court
made after
considering all the relevant circumstances. No legislation may permit
arbitrary evictions.’
[31]
In
Grootboom
,
the Constitutional Court provided an in-depth analysis of what the
provisions in s 26 of the Constitution entail.
[14]
Subsection (1) defines the right, while subsection (2) imposes a
positive obligation on the State to take reasonable legislative
and
other measures, within its available means, to achieve progressive
realisation of the right. In this regard, the Constitutional
Court
stated that:
‘
It
requires the state to devise a comprehensive and workable plan to
meet its obligations in terms of the subsection. However subsection
(2) also makes it clear that the obligation imposed upon the state is
not an absolute or unqualified one. The extent of the state’s
obligation is defined by three key elements that are considered
separately: (a) the obligation to “take reasonable legislative
and other measures”; (b) “to achieve the progressive
realisation” of the right; and (c) “within available
resources.”’
[15]
[32]
To qualify as reasonable, a housing
programme must clearly set out responsibilities and tasks of the
different spheres of government
and make available financial and
human resources. The programme must be coherent and capable of
facilitating the realisation of
the right.
‘
In
any challenge based on section 26 in which it is argued that the
state has failed to meet the positive obligations imposed upon
it by
section 26 (2),
the
question will be whether the legislative and other measures taken by
the state are reasonable.
A
court considering reasonableness will not enquire whether other more
desirable or favourable measures could have been adopted,
or whether
public money could have been better spent.
The question would be whether the measures that have been adopted are
reasonable. It is necessary to recognise that a wide range
of
possible measures could be adopted by the state to meet its
obligations.
Many
of these would meet the requirement of reasonableness.
Once it is shown that the measures do so, this requirement is
met.’
[16]
(My emphasis.)
[33]
Legislative
measures only, are not sufficient. The executive must adopt policies
and programmes, which are reasonable in both their
conception and
implementation.
[17]
And ‘[a]n
otherwise reasonable programme that is not implemented reasonably
will not constitute compliance with the state’s
obligations’.
[18]
[34]
The
programme must be considered within its social, economic and
historical context and in light of the capacity of the institution
implementing the programme. It must be balanced and flexible and give
attention to housing crises and to short, medium and long
term
needs.
[19]
[35]
It
must be recognised that the right may not be realised immediately,
hence the expression ‘progressive realisation’.
Further,
housing must be made accessible to a wider range of people as time
progresses.
[20]
The State is
not expected to do more than is achievable within its available
resources. Balance is required between the goal of
realising the
right expeditiously and effectively within the means available to do
so. In this regard, the ‘availability
of resources is an
important factor in determining what is reasonable’.
[21]
[36]
The Housing Act 107 of 1997 (Housing Act)
gives effect to s 26 of the Constitution as part of the legislative
measures taken by
the State.
Section 9(1)
of the
Housing Act requires
that:
‘
Every
municipality must, as part of the municipality’s process of
integrated development planning, take all reasonable and
necessary
steps within the framework of national and provincial housing
legislation and policy to –
(a)
ensure that –
(i)
the inhabitants of its area of jurisdiction
have access to adequate housing on a progressive basis;
(ii)
conditions not conducive to the health and
safety of the inhabitants of its area of jurisdiction are prevented
or removed;
(iii)
services in respect of water, sanitation,
electricity, roads, storm-water drainage and transport are provided
in a manner which
is economically efficient;
(b)
set housing delivery goals in respect
of its area of jurisdiction;
(c)
identify and designate land for housing
development;
(d)
create and maintain a public
environment conducive to housing development which is financially and
socially viable;
(e)
. . .
(f)
initiate, plan, co-ordinate,
facilitate, promote and enable appropriate housing development in its
area of jurisdiction;
(g)
. . .
(h)
. . .’
[37]
The
National Housing Code, 2009 (Housing Code) was developed as
contemplated by
s 4
of the
Housing Act. The
Housing Code makes
provision for the Emergency Housing Programme.
[22]
This programme was designed ‘to address the needs of households
[which] for reasons beyond their control, find themselves
in an
emergency housing situation such as the fact that their existing
shelter has been destroyed or damaged, their prevailing
situation
poses an immediate threat to their life, health and safety, or they
have been evicted, or face the threat of imminent
eviction’.
Assistance is provided to municipalities in the form of grants to
enable them to respond rapidly to emergencies
by means of the
provision of land, shelter and municipal engineering services. In
appropriate cases, this may include the possible
relocation and
resettlement of people on a voluntary and cooperative basis.
The City’s
housing programme
[38]
The City contends that the high court erred
in not taking into account its entire housing programme and treating
the emergency housing
programme in isolation. It submits that it has
an Integrated Human Settlements Framework (IHSF), which is aligned to
legislation
and policies, including the
Housing Act and
the Housing
Code. In addition, it adopted the Five-Year Plan. In this regard, it
has a number of housing programmes, namely social
housing, GAP
housing, finance-linked individual subsidy housing, institutional
housing and emergency and transitional housing.
[39]
It implements the National Emergency
Housing Programme by creating incremental development areas (IDAs)
and temporary relocation
areas (TRAs). More recently, it has begun to
develop emergency housing within existing settlements. The IDAs are
incrementally
upgraded to provide for permanent housing. Emergency
housing ‘applies to various categories of persons including
persons
who are evicted or threatened with imminent eviction from
land’. It is intended to benefit all affected persons who are
not
in a position to address their housing emergencies.
[40]
The emergency housing projects exist in
Mfuleni, Happy Valley, Blikkiesdorp, Wolwerivier, Sir Lowry’s
Pass and Bardale. The
TRA units are located at OR Tambo, Hangberg and
Masonwabe in Gugulethu. As at March 2020, the City started
constructing housing
within existing settlements at Kalkfontein in
Kuilsriver, Bosasa in Blue Downs, Wallacedene in Kraaifontein,
Kampies in Philippi
and at other places. Applicants for emergency
housing are required to place their names on the housing database so
as to be identified
whether they could be accommodated in other
housing programmes, such as the social housing programme and GAP
housing.
[41]
According to the City, the social housing
programme is aimed at developing affordable rental areas with bulk
infrastructure. It
consists of a high-density subsidised housing
project, which is implemented, managed and owned by independent and
accredited social
housing institutions in designated restructuring
zones. It accommodates persons with income levels of between R1 500
and R7 500.
Social housing units include areas such as Steenberg,
Brooklyn, Bothasig and Scottsdene. Developments were also being
planned for
Salt River and Woodstock.
[42]
GAP housing is aimed at persons earning in
excess of R6 500, with those earning in excess of R7 500 given
preference. According
to the City’s assessment, some of the
occupiers qualified for GAP and social housing programmes. The City
alleges that it
attempted to assist the occupiers within its IHSF. As
earlier stated, it urged those who qualified for social and GAP
housing to
apply.
[43]
Individual subsidy housing is
finance-linked and secured by mortgage bonds. Repayments are
determined according to income. It is
aimed at households earning
between R3 000 and R15 000 per month. In the institutional housing
programme, the beneficiaries are
provided with a subsidy, which may
be supplemented with their own income to acquire a superior housing
structure.
[44]
The City concedes that it has no emergency
housing developments in the immediate city centre and surrounds.
However, it contends
that the reasons are complex. They include: (a)
the excessively high costs of developing an emergency housing
settlement in the
inner city – the cost in this regard is said
to be at least triple what it would be in areas further afield; (b)
the very
high rates on properties in the city centre; and (c) the
scarcity of land in the immediate surrounds of the City and the
competing
demands on such land.
[45]
It submits, however, that there are areas
within the immediate surrounds of the City, such as Woodstock, which
are targeted for
affordable inner-city housing and temporary housing
projects. A range of projects are envisaged for these areas. These
include
mixed land use development involving transportation, housing,
social and economic opportunities. These would provide for affordable
housing, which could bring lower-income people closer to work
opportunities. Other projects aimed at overcoming the legacy of
apartheid spatial planning include the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP)
project, a joint project between the City and the Western Cape
Government.
[46]
The occupiers submit that they identified
45 parcels of vacant state-owned land within 5 km of the property
which were suitable
for development or at the very least temporary
emergency accommodation. In response, the City explained that the
said land parcels
were too small for a housing development; and that
it was not in the position to provide individual tracts of land to
beneficiaries,
because it was unaffordable and to do so would also
create unfairness among different beneficiaries of state-assisted
housing.
It would entrench the exclusion of black African residents,
who, owing to apartheid, were not allowed to reside in the inner
city.
Furthermore, properties of individual occupiers in the inner
city and the surrounds would derive or attract better value than
those
outside the city centre. There is no dispute about the
existence of these programmes.
The finding of
unconstitutionality
[47]
It will be recalled that the high court
declared that ‘the [City’s] emergency housing programme
and its implementation,
in relation to persons who may be rendered
homeless pursuant to their eviction in the inner City and its
surrounds, and in Woodstock
and Salt River in particular, is
unconstitutional’. In terms of s 72(1)
(a)
of the Constitution, ‘[w]hen
deciding a constitutional matter within its power, a court . . . must
declare that any law or
conduct that is inconsistent with the
Constitution is invalid to the extent of its inconsistency.’
The high court did not
identify the extent of invalidity for the City
to rectify in its order. For this reason alone, its order of
unconstitutionality
cannot stand.
[48]
In addition, the high court’s order
does not accord with the relief sought by the occupiers in paragraph
2.1 of the amended
notice of motion. It is not substantiated by the
papers which served before the court or by the court’s
reasoning. The occupiers
had challenged the housing programme in
terms of the Five-Year Plan and sought an order that it be declared
inconsistent with the
City’s constitutional and statutory
obligations, to the extent that it failed to provide the occupiers
and people living
in Woodstock and Salt River, who were at the risk
of homelessness due to eviction, with temporary emergency
accommodation or transitional
housing in the immediate city centre
and surrounds.
[49]
The
Five-Year Plan
under
attack was
for the period of July 2012 to June 2017.
Apart
from the fact that that document had expired, no affidavit was filed
as the foundation for the new notice of motion, nor any
legal basis
set out in support of this constitutional attack anywhere in the
papers. Neither were the impugned portions of the
Five-Year Plan
identified, nor the relevant constitutional or statutory provisions
infringed.
[50]
At the hearing of the appeal, counsel for
the occupiers argued that the basis for the relief was apparent from
the City’s
affidavit of November 2017, which he submitted led
to the amendment. When pressed on this issue, counsel referred to a
paragraph
in the affidavit filed in support of the application for
the amendment of the notice of motion. All this paragraph contained
was
the following:
‘
The
[occupiers] seek to amend their relief in consequence of this 180
degree change by the City and the new evidence underpinning
it as
disclosed in the pre and post hearing media statements by the City
and the City’s affidavit dated 1 November 2017.
I respectfully
submit that this new evidence constitutes an admission by the City
that the implementation of its Integrated Human
Settlements: Five
Year Plan is in need of change in order to address displacement of
persons such as the [occupiers] due [to] gentrification
in the inner
City areas of Woodstock and Salt River.’
[51]
As to the content of the impugned Five-Year
Plan, there is no inconsistency between it and the City’s
alleged new approach.
Even if there were, the City was entitled to
adapt its housing programme to address the effects of gentrification,
among other
challenges. It did so by identifying Woodstock, Salt
River and the surrounds as areas to develop affordable social
housing. It
is not clear what could be objectionable about the City
seeking to build affordable houses in the inner city as part of
addressing
the legacy of apartheid spatial planning. Indeed, the
occupiers do not take issue with the form of social housing. Instead,
they
criticise the City for not having emergency housing in the inner
city as part of the Five-Year Plan. That, however, had been the
position even before the amendment was sought. I am not sure how the
adaptation of the Five-Year Plan would affect the initial
relief
sought. At no stage did the City undertake to provide emergency
housing in the inner city. In fact, it had stated that it
only had
emergency housing available in Wolwerivier. In any case, the impugned
Five-Year Plan had expired.
[52]
In the occupiers’ heads of argument,
the issue before this Court is identified as ‘whether the City
has demonstrated
that its policies and programme regarding emergency
housing and the implementation thereof, are reasonable and consistent
with
the Constitution’. It is then broadly stated that the
formulation and implementation of the City’s housing programme
is deficient and inconsistent with the positive duties imposed on the
City by s 26 of the Constitution, in that the City’s
housing
programme does not provide for access to emergency housing and
accommodation in the immediate inner city centre and surrounds,
in
order to meet the urgent emergency housing needs of the occupiers and
people living in Woodstock and Salt River who are at risk
of
homelessness and in a crisis situation due to eviction from their
homes.
[53]
For
this contention to withstand scrutiny, a source of the duty had to be
identified. The legislative measures and programmes taken
by the
government giving effect to s 26 of the Constitution do not impose a
duty on it to provide temporary emergency accommodation
at a specific
locality. Nor have the line of cases since
Grootboom
interpreted the duties flowing from s 26 to oblige the government to
provide emergency housing at a specific location. In fact,
the
opposite has been suggested. In
Thubelisha
,
Ngcobo J observed that ‘the Constitution does not guarantee a
person a right to housing at government expense at the locality
of
his or her choice. Locality is determined by a number of factors
including the availability of land. However, in deciding on
the
locality, the government must have regard to the relationship between
the location of residents and their places of employment’.
[23]
[54]
The high court recognised that ‘to
ascribe such a power to itself . . . would place an impossible burden
on the State, as
it would result in it having to accommodate evictees
who are going to be rendered homeless, in virtually every suburb or
area in
which they live. For obvious reasons this is untenable.’
The court, however, went on to make the very order that it found
it
could not grant. It justified its finding on the basis that this
matter had to be decided ‘on the basis of whether it
is
rational or reasonable for the [occupiers] to be told that they must
take up emergency housing either in a TRA or an IDA on
the outskirts
of the City, or alternatively in an informal settlement, whilst other
similarly-placed persons do not face the same
choice, because they
may have the good fortune of being afforded “transitional”
housing or (as was promised by the
City’s Mayoral Member for
urban development), “temporary” housing, in the inner
City and its surrounds.’
[55]
The occupiers do not impugn the City’s
offer to relocate them (to Kampies in Philippi, among other places)
in relation to
them per se. Rather, they impugn the City’s plan
or emergency housing programme and its implementation for not
providing
emergency accommodation in the specific locality of the
city centre and surrounds. This is a broader attack.
[56]
Having failed to identify the source of the
constitutional duty in the Constitution or the
Housing Act, the
occupiers resorted to relying on s 26 of the Constitution in general
terms. However, the principle of subsidiarity prohibits direct
reliance on the Constitution where specific and detailed legislation
giving effect to a right sought to be enforced has been passed.
In
any event, as I have demonstrated, none of the legal framework or
programmes guarantees such a right or imposes the suggested
duty on
the State.
Reasonableness of the
City’s emergency housing programme
[57]
In
order to establish whether the measures taken by the City to address
the obligations in s 26 of the Constitution are reasonable,
a
balanced enquiry as outlined in
Grootboom
would
have to be taken into account. This, being mindful of the fact that
the courts are not at large to set aside a programme merely
for the
reason that there may be other measures which it considers more
favourable or desirable.
[24]
[58]
It was aptly put in
Thubelisha
thus:
‘
It
is for the government to decide how to allocate houses in the new
area. If the government, in its wisdom, decides to allocate
some of
the houses in the newly developed Joe Slovo to backyard dwellers from
Kwa-Langa, which is close to Joe Slovo, this cannot
be faulted unless
it is unreasonable. . .
. . .
In considering
reasonableness, the enquiry is not “whether other more
desirable or favourable measures could have been adopted,
or whether
public money could have been better spent.” Rather, the enquiry
should be confined to the question whether the
measures that have
been adopted are reasonable, bearing in mind “that a wide range
of possible measures could be adopted
by the State to meet its
obligations.” Thus in determining whether the government has
complied with its obligations to provide
access to adequate housing,
courts must acknowledge that the government must determine and set
priorities but must ensure that,
in setting those priorities, it has
regard to its constitutional obligations. In short, the obligation of
government must not be
construed in a manner that ties its hands and
makes it impossible to comply with its constitutional obligations.
. . .
It is not for the courts
to tell the government how to upgrade the area. This is a matter for
the government to decide. The fact
that there may be other ways of
upgrading the area without relocating the residents does not show
that the decision of the government
to relocate the residents is
unreasonable. It is not for the courts to tell the government how
best to comply with its obligations.
If, in the best judgment of the
government it is necessary to relocate people, a court should be slow
to interfere with that decision,
as long as it is reasonable in terms
of s 26(2) of the Constitution and just and equitable under PIE.
Some of the reasons
advanced by the residents for refusing to relocate to the TRUs in
Delft are a lack of schools and other amenities
and a lack of
employment. What must be stressed here is that relocation is
necessary to develop Joe Slovo so that decent housing
can be built
there. This will benefit the residents. Moreover, the Constitution
does not guarantee a person a right to housing
at government expense
at the locality of his or her choice. Locality is determined by a
number of factors including the availability
of land. However, in
deciding on the locality, the government must have regard to the
relationship between the location of residents
and their places of
employment.
. . .
In
the past we have stressed that the government faces an extremely
difficult task in addressing the injustices of the past. This
is
compounded by the limited availability of resources, including the
availability of land where decent houses can be built.’
[25]
[59]
The City has taken a policy decision to
designate certain areas of the inner city, including Woodstock and
Salt River, for social
housing. The high court suggested that the
implementation of the City’s housing programme in the inner
city was ‘to
give undue preference to social housing, at the
expense of the City’s constitutional obligations in relation to
the provision
of emergency housing.’ The introduction of social
housing in the inner city has not been challenged as being
unreasonable.
The high court has not found this decision to be
unreasonable either. That being so, the issue is not before us.
[60]
As to emergency housing, the City
demonstrated unequivocally that its policy provides for an emergency
housing programme by way
of IDAs, TRAs and developments in existing
informal settlements. These are considered mechanisms created to meet
emergency housing
needs when they arise. The fact that no provision
is made for such emergency housing needs in the inner city, does not
render the
choices made by the City irrational or unreasonable.
[61]
One
of the arguments advanced to suggest that the policy is unreasonable
is that the occupiers cannot afford social housing because
they are
unemployed. The argument is flawed. It conflates temporary emergency
housing, which by its nature is provided by the State
to meet
emergency needs, with the progressive realisation of the right to
adequate permanent housing. The latter, as the discussion
set out
above demonstrates, involves the provision of housing that is
subsidised in various respects, and may involve some amount
paid by
residents or fully or partially subsidised by the government. As the
Constitutional Court recognised, ‘[i]ndividuals
may have a
range of incomes – some may be able to afford subsidised
housing while others may be completely destitute. . .
.
[Accordingly,] the Occupiers have a myriad of personal circumstances
to be taken into account in considering their eligibility
for
housing’.
[26]
Thus,
differentiation in housing delivery by the City between emergency
housing needs and housing needs that do not constitute
emergency
might well be reasonable in the circumstances.
[27]
[62]
The
distinction between permanent and emergency housing has been
recognised. This Court in
City
of Johannesburg v Dladla and Others
,
[28]
referred with approval to the judgment of
City
of Cape Town v Hoosain N O
,
[29]
in which the following was observed:
‘
Once
it is recognised that emergency accommodation by its very nature will
invariably fall short of the standards reasonably expected
of
permanent housing accommodation, it follows that those who need to
occupy such accommodation must accept less than what would
ordinarily
be acceptable. The apparent harshness of an acceptance of this
recognition has to be seen against the realities imposed
by the vast
scale of the housing backlogs with which the state, in general, and
the City, in particular, are having to engage.’
[63]
The high court concluded that ‘the
City does not appear to have a comprehensive, workable and coherent
emergency housing plan
or program, at least not its own one, and
appears to have adopted inconsistent and contradictory stances and
policies. And its
implementation of its emergency housing program,
such as it is, in relation to such persons, appears to be
inconsistent and arbitrary’.
The high court found this because
the Mayoral Committee Member and the Prospectus had mentioned a
change in approach on the housing
delivery programme. It hardly need
be stated that a political speech by a municipal politician does not
constitute policy, carefully
considered and adopted by a
policy-maker. What the high court was called upon to consider was the
rationality and reasonableness
of the policy approach set out by the
City in its deliberations on the challenge. As to the new approach
articulated in the Prospectus,
it made no undertaking to the
occupiers to provide emergency or ‘transitional’ housing
in the inner city. It is also
important to bear in mind that a
programme must be flexible and adaptive.
[64]
The high court found that the overall
housing delivery programme was not the issue in the matter. It erred
by disregarding the broad
range of permanent housing programmes that
the City implements, since these are directly affected by the order
directing the City
to make available emergency housing in the city
centre and surrounding areas. The City’s obligation is wide
ranging and is
not confined to the provision of emergency housing
accommodation.
[65]
The housing delivery question is not an
easy one to answer. Temporary emergency accommodation has in many
instances turned into
semi-permanent or permanent homes due to
shortage of government housing. According to the City, permanent
housing is the ideal
that the government is pursuing. It is, thus,
imperative to ensure that while occupiers of emergency accommodation
wait for permanent
sites, a balance is achieved in ensuring that
their settlements do not perpetuate poverty and human
indignity.
Differentiation and
the irrationality issue
[66]
The occupiers contend that they were
treated differently from the residents of Pine Road and Salt River
Market by not being offered
transitional housing. In this regard,
they allege that the City was arbitrarily implementing its housing
delivery programme in
the same way as in
Blue
Moonlight Properties
. This argument is
erroneous.
Blue Moonlight
Properties
dealt with a completely different situation, that of an emergency
programme that excluded occupiers that were evicted by private
landowners from their properties. In other words, there was no
programme in place for those people evicted by private property
owners as opposed to those who were evicted by the State from its
property. That kind of programme was clearly discriminatory.
In this
case, conversely, there is an emergency housing programme, which
applies to all residents who are faced with housing crises
and need
immediate help.
[67]
The City’s solution of relocating
people from informal settlements to transitional housing with a view
to developing the land
they occupied does not render the policy
unreasonable or arbitrary. It is clear that those sites were reserved
for a specific purpose
and not generally for those that were in a
similar position as the occupiers in Woodstock and Salt River.
[68]
There is no evidence that any evictees in a
position similar to the occupiers were accommodated in the
transitional housing sites
within the inner city. It is worth
mentioning that transitional housing differs from the temporary
emergency accommodation, in
that a rental fee would be charged in the
earmarked transitional housing sites. To the extent that the
recipients were not able
to pay the full rental, the City would
subsidise the shortfall in operating expenses of the social housing
company that would be
developing the sites. The City explained that a
formal policy in respect of its transitional housing was yet to be
developed. The
City has alleged that due to scarcity of land, and the
cost of development, it is unlikely that any further transitional
housing
units would be developed in the city centre.
[69]
It was not disputed that the reason the
City committed to transitional housing was to ensure that vacant land
could be obtained
in order for social housing to be developed. If
transitional housing in Pickwick were to be used for the occupiers,
it will not
be available for its intended purpose. That would mean
that vacant occupation in Pine Road would not be obtained and social
housing
development would be impeded or would not proceed. The City
alleges that it was possible for the Pickwick housing to be made
available
more broadly in future, but as the issues of relocation
were still underway, it was premature to do so at this stage.
[70]
An order directing the City to house the
occupiers in the transitional accommodation would mean the eviction
of the informal dwellers
from Pickwick (who are not party to these
proceedings). The high court acknowledged that ‘there was no
spare accommodation
in the Pickwick “transitional”
housing development as all its rooms were occupied, and the St James
development was
still in progress’. Another effect of the order
would be to re-direct the City’s resources from the social
housing
programme to temporary emergency housing within the inner
city and the surrounds, whereas, according to the City, there was
presently
no land available. Those choices are not for the Court to
make. The high court’s order, therefore, put the City in an
invidious
position, by making an order without knowing, or being in a
position to know, if land would be found specifically in the inner
city and surrounds. In light of all the reasons above, the high
court’s order must be set aside.
Appropriate relief
[71]
While a case has not been made out for the
declaration of unconstitutionality of the City’s housing
programme and its implementation
as sought by the occupiers, and for
the provision of temporary emergency housing at a specific locality,
the Court still has to
make a just and equitable order, so as not to
render the occupiers homeless. This is because of the extended
eviction orders made
which are yet to be implemented and have not
been appealed against.
[72]
The
City bears a duty to provide the occupiers with suitable temporary
emergency accommodation. It is appropriate that an order
be made that
such accommodation be at a location as near as possible to the area
where the property is situated.
[30]
The City’s counsel informed us that the offer to provide
temporary emergency accommodation at Kampies in Philippi still stands
and it was rejected primarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic and
the likely exposure of the vulnerable occupiers.
[73]
The suitability of Kampies is not an issue
squarely before us. It is, however, imperative for the City to
realise that it has the
responsibility of ensuring that the occupiers
are treated with dignity and care when choosing an appropriate
location. In doing
so, the City should take into account the
occupier’s places of employment and children’s schooling,
hospitals, transportation
and other important amenities that their
relocation may require. In this regard, the vulnerabilities of the
occupiers must be considered.
[74]
To this end, it is essential that the City
be provided with reasonable time to find the temporary emergency
accommodation. It follows
that the date of eviction stipulated in the
eviction orders should also be extended to a reasonable date after
the City has to
provide accommodation.
[75]
As to costs, the
Biowatch
principle applies. In light of this, we are obliged to replace
the high court’s order with one of no order as to costs.
Notwithstanding that the appeal succeeds, the costs
of appeal should also land where it falls, in accordance
with the
Biowatch
principle.
[76]
For these reasons, the following order is
made:
1
The appeal is upheld, with no order as to costs.
2
The high court’s order is set aside and replaced with the
following:
‘
1
The City of Cape Town must provide the
occupiers and their dependants with temporary emergency
accommodation
in a location as near as possible to where they currently reside, erf
10626, Bromwell Street, Woodstock (the property),
on or before 30 May
2023, provided that they are still resident at the property and have
not voluntarily vacated it.
2
The date on which the occupiers
are required to vacate the property is extended to 30 June
2023.
3
There is no order as to costs.’
__________________________
N
P MABINDLA-BOQWANA
JUDGE
OF APPEAL
Appearances
For the
appellant: K
Pillay SC and A du
Toit
Instructed by:
Fairbridges
Wertheim Becker, Cape Town
McIntyre
Van der Post, Bloemfontein
For the first to
twenty-sixth
respondents: S Magardie
Instructed
by: Ndifuna
Ukwazi Law Centre, Cape Town
Phatshoane
Henney Attorneys, Bloemfontein
[1]
Residents
of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha Homes and Others
(Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and Another,
Amici Curiae)
[2009] ZACC 16
;
2010
(3) SA 454
(CC);
2009 (9) BCLR 847
(CC) (
Thubelisha
)
para 264.
[2]
Urban
renewal and redevelopment for commercial and business purposes.
[3]
For example, see The Guardian article ‘In the Cape Town
enclave that survived apartheid, the new enemy is gentrification’,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/19/cape-town-bo-kaap-muslim-enclave-gentrification
.
[4]
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight
Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2011]
ZASCA 47
;
2011
(4) SA 337
(SCA);
[2011] 3 All SA 471
(SCA)
(
Blue
Moonlight Properties
(
SCA
))
para 2.
[5]
Government
of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Grootboom and Others
[2000]
ZACC 19
;
2001
(1) SA 46
(CC);
2000 (11) BCLR 1169
(CC) (
Grootboom
).
[6]
Ibid
para 99. See also
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight
Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2011]
ZACC 33
;
2012
(2) SA 104
(CC);
2012
(2) BCLR 150
(CC), which found t
hat
the government, including municipalities, has a constitutional duty
to provide emergency housing to persons in crisis situations
and
that includes those who have been evicted from a property, whether
instigated by a public or a private institution
.
[7]
According
to the Affordable Housing Prospectus for the Woodstock, Salt River
and Inner-City Precinct, issued by the City on 28
September 2017,
‘
Transitional
Housing’ refers to ‘accommodation for individuals or
families who have to be relocated as a result of
eviction, or
temporarily moved as a result of the upgrading of sites on which
they lived. This accommodation is an intermediate
solution until
such time as individuals or families can move into permanent
accommodation’. The CRU Feasibility for the
Development of
‘Transitional’ Housing Project – Pickwick Site,
Cape Town, dated January 2017, envisaged that
for some residents
‘transitional housing’ ‘will provide temporary
housing as they transition to more permanent
options although it is
recognised that, because of the shortage of the alternatives for low
income households, some households
are likely to remain on a
semi-permanent basis.’
[8]
National
Treasury and Others v Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance and
Others
[2012] ZACC 18
;
2012
(6) SA 223
(CC);
2012
(11) BCLR 1148
(CC) para 67.
[9]
Occupiers
of Erven 87 & 88 Berea v De Wet N O and Another
[2017] ZACC 18
;
2017
(5) SA 346
(CC);
2017
(8) BCLR 1015
(CC) paras 39-57.
[10]
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight
Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2011] ZACC 33
;
2012
(2) SA 104
(CC);
2012 (2) BCLR 150
(CC) para 104(e)(iv) (
Blue
Moonlight Properties
(
CC
)).
[11]
Thubelisha
fn
1 above para 254.
[12]
Affordable
h
ousing
to accommodate a gap in the market of those families earning between
R3 501 and R15 000 per month – a housing market
not served by
the private market or the State – 2016/2017 Review of
Integrated Human Settlements Five-Year Plan at 49.
[13]
Baron
and Others v Claytile (Pty) Limited and Another
[2017]
ZACC 24
;
2017
(5) SA 329
(CC);
2017 (10) BCLR 1225
(CC) para 50.
[14]
See
also
City
of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight
Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another
[2011]
ZASCA 47
;
2011
(4) SA 337
(SCA);
[2011]
3 All SA 471
(SCA)
paras
26-40 for a helpful analysis of
Grootboom
and s 26 of the Constitution concerning the State’s
constitutional duty.
[15]
Grootboom
fn 5 above para 38.
[16]
Ibid
para 41.
[17]
Ibid
para 42.
[18]
Ibid.
[19]
Ibid
para 43.
[20]
Ibid
para 45.
[21]
Ibid
para 46.
[22]
The
Emergency Housing Programme is contained in Part 3 Volume 4 of the
National Housing Code, 2009.
[23]
Thubelisha
fn 1 above para 254.
[24]
Blue
Moonlight Properties
(
CC
)
fn 10 above para 88.
[25]
Thubelisha
fn
1 above paras 249, 252-254 and 256.
[26]
Blue
Moonlight Properties
(
CC
)
fn 10 above para 92.
[27]
Ibid
para 95.
[28]
City
of Johannesburg v Dladla and Others
[2016]
ZASCA 66
;
2016
(6)
SA 377 (SCA) para 20.
[29]
City
of Cape Town v Hoosain N O and Others
[2011]
ZAWCHC 391
(WCC) para 14.
[30]
See
Blue
Moonlight Properties (CC)
fn
10 above and
Thubelisha
fn 1 above.
sino noindex
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