City of Joburg leaves poor out in the cold

Today over 1 000 occupiers of several inner city Johannesburg buildings issued an application in the Johannesburg High Court, requesting the court to declare that the City of Johannesburg has failed to discharge its obligations, under section 26(2) of the Constitution, to provide temporary accommodation to people facing eviction.

The application is a response to the City's attempt to get an order suspending nearly 30 pending evictions, because it does not have land or buildings available to provide for people who are evicted. The City claims this inability to provide alternative accommodation is due to it awaiting the outcome of the Dladla matter, in which residents of alternative accommodation provided by the City are challenging the lawfulness of the rules in the accommodation.

Today an illegal eviction was attempted at one of the buildings represented by SERI - Jeanwell Court - by the owner, City officials and JMPD officers. The occupiers of that property were evicted out onto the streets because the City says that their homes are unsafe. These occupiers, who, like thousands of others, live in constant fear of eviction from dilapidated buildings, cannot be expected to wait in limbo for years until it suits the City to come up with a plan for them.

In seeking to suspend all evictions that might require it to provide alternative accommodation, the City wants to suspend its own obligations to provide decent shelter for poor and vulnerable people. This comes after several years in which the City has refused to engage with the occupiers on their needs and circumstances, or plan and budget for providing accommodation. The City has adopted an unreasonable, inflexible attitude to the occupiers and their circumstances. That, the occupiers will tell the High Court, is unlawful.

In their application, the occupiers are requesting that a detailed process of engagement, investigation and reporting-back to court is undertaken by the City. This would include: implementing revised criteria for determining eligibility for the provision of temporary accommodation; adopting reasonable measures, within available resources, to provide temporary accommodation to the occupiers; and engaging meaningfully, individually and collectively, with each of the occupiers, the owners of the property and their legal representatives in order to determine their individual circumstances and the extent to which the City's managed care policy should be applied to them.

The occupiers want the City to file a report showing the steps it has taken to engage with the occupiers and owners on the provision of temporary accommodation; the terms and conditions under which the occupiers are to be accommodated; and the nature of the land and/or buildings available (or not) to the City to accommodate the occupiers.

According to Nomzamo Zondo, attorney at SERI: "Everyday, poor and vulnerable people in Johannesburg face unacceptable living conditions in dilapidated buildings and victimisation through unlawful eviction. The City says it is rejuvenating the inner city, but it does nothing for the poorest of its residents. This cannot be allowed to continue. The longer the City delays, the greater the risk that the occupiers will end up on the streets. The City must act now to give effect to its constitutional obligations."

Read more on the stay application here.

Read more on the Dladla case here.

Statement issued by Tashwill Esterhuizen, attorney at SERI and Nomzamo Zondo, attorney at SERI, June 10 2014

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