Housing (Right to adequate)

For over 20 years, the City of Johannesburg promised residents that it would upgrade Slovo Park in the face of a lack of electricity, adequate water, sanitation, refuse removal, demarcated roads, and a proneness to fatal shack fires.  The City’s inaction led residents to develop their own upgrading plans in keeping with the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Policy (UISP) contained within the National Housing Code.  Despite residents’ efforts to engage the City on implementing these plans, the City was unresponsive.  Consequently, represented by the

Five applicants filed this case in 2016, seeking: a declaration that the lack of adequate procedures governing evictions violates the rights to life, dignity, and property under articles 22, 24, and 26 of the Constitution, as well as state obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); an order compelling the government to develop comprehensive guidelines to govern land evictions; and an order seeking to recover costs of the lawsuit.

This case grew out of the 2011 judgment in Blue Moonlight, where the Constitutional Court of South Africa held that municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide temporary emergency accommodation to all evictees who would be rendered homeless.

In December 1961, Lazarus Ogbonnaga Ukeje died intestate with real property in Lagos State. The appellants are his wife Mrs. Lois Chituru Ukeje and her son, Mr. Enyinnaya Lazarus Ukeje, both of whom obtained Letters of Administration for and over the deceased’s Estate. The plaintiff/respondent is the daughter of the deceased and brought this suit seeking a declaration from the court that as the daughter of the deceased she is entitled to a share of his estate.