Judgment has been reserved in the Constitutional Court after submissions were made on the City’s housing policy, which does not provide for emergency accommodation in the inner city.
Affordable housing activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi and Abahlali baseMjondolo – a socialist shack dwellers’ movement – on Tuesday made submissions on behalf of long-standing residents of Bromwell Street, in the city centre, who had been evicted as a result of gentrification and were to be relocated to informal settlements far from the city centre.
The applicants – families who resided in four adjoining cottages in Bromwell Street, Woodstock –approached the Constitutional Court to appeal a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in February last year, which permitted the City to relocate them to informal settlements such as Wolwerivier.
Abahlali have been admitted as amicus curiae (friend of the court) and are represented by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) in the matter.
In their written arguments, the applicants submitted that “the SCA failed to subject the City’s conduct and its response to the emergency housing needs of the Bromwell families to the sufficiently close degree of scrutiny required by the constitutional standard of reasonableness”.
“The SCA’s incorrect characterisation of the constitutional issue before it as being whether the Bromwell families have a right to demand emergency housing at a locality of their choice, made this incorrect finding and evaluation of the reasonableness of the City’s conduct inevitable.
“Second, the SCA erred in its understanding of the phenomenon of gentrification and failed to take into account considerations of spatial justice and spatial apartheid in its evaluation of the City’s offers of emergency accommodation to the Bromwell families and the reasonableness of the City’s exclusion of emergency housing as an option in the inner city areas of Cape Town,” court documents read.
In a statement, Abahlali said the oppressed would continue to suffer for as long as land and housing were commodified.
“For as long as the social value of land and housing comes after their commercial value, and for as long as profit is placed before people, the poor and the working class will continue to be forced out of the cities by capital.”
The City confirmed that it had made representations on Tuesday and said the implication of the demands of the Bromwell Street residents would mean they “would have to provide emergency housing for any number of private evictions in the specific area of the eviction, and at the public’s cost” and added this would be “neither reasonable nor feasible”.
Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said: “In a February 2023 ruling, the SCA agreed with the City’s approach, stating that ‘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’.”
Reclaim the City, a social movement for tenants, supported the applicants.
“We refuse to be silent as our neighbourhoods are commodified, our communities dismantled, and our rights trampled upon.
“The city we envision is inclusive, equitable, and a just city where every individual, regardless of their economic status, has a right to a stable home and a sense of belonging.
“We demand that our city’s leaders and policymakers prioritise the needs of its residents over the profits of developers and investors. We call for an end to discriminatory housing practices and for the implementation of a housing programme that truly serves the people,” the organisation said.
Cape Times