Appeal to South African Constitutional Court regarding an eviction of an informal settlement to build low-cost housing; Nature of the right of access to adequate housing; Reasonableness of government policy on housing; Legitimate expectations of the community.
The eviction order has not been executed, and appears likely be discharged. In the period between the hearing of the case and the handing down of the judgment, political control of the Western Cape Provincial Government (and accordingly control over the funding of subsidised housing projects in that province) passed from the African National Congress (ANC) to the Democratic Alliance (DA). Largely because of the difficulty it would have in complying with the stringent conditions set out in the order of the Court, the provincial government soon agreed to look again at upgrading the settlement on site- an option it had previously told the Court was impossible, but which the applicants had sought all along.
This case was considered an important victory to those living in the Joe Slovo settlement because the community has been given another opportunity to press for an on site upgrade due to the governments inability to implement the Court’s detailed and exacting order. In this case, the Court appeared to conceive of its role as one of requiring the government to implement the best possible version of the policy it had presented. Reasonableness review in this case was about giving effect to the expectations of the Joe Slovo community which were consistent with that policy rather than delving into the question of whether the policy was appropriate to the community’s objectively established needs. Yet, the fact that the Court was willing to hold the government to its own account of what the policy was meant provide, and to ensure that it was implemented accordingly, was ultimately to prove decisive.
Joe Slovo Task Team Legal Resources Centre http://www.lrc.org.za/ Community Law Centre: http://www.communitylawcentre.org.za/ Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions: http://www.cohre.org/ Centre for Applied Legal Studies: http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/CLM/Law/CALS/