Government officials speak out both sides of their mouths

Q. Do you plan to do anything about the temporary relocation area because the people of Joe Slovo and Langa are quite unhappy about the resettlement to Delft? (PMG)

TOKYO SEXWALE: We understand why people want to be where they are, they want to be close to their places of work,..... They want to be close to amenities. They want to have the kind of life that we are all having even though they are squatting. ......They also don’t want to be moved very far from where they are staying.

Director General Itumeleng Kotsoane: These are not evictions, these are relocations and they are intended to be temporary, so that we can allow work to be done on that portion of land, allocated for infrastructure to be built. But what we also say to people is it may happen that not all of you will come back and therefore we are bound to find alternative settlements and we will try by all means to make sure that we don’t uproot people far from places of work. So we are quite aware of that, the Department and the Province are providing additional transport for those people to go work, for their kids to go to school and so forth. There is some sensitivity about that issue.

ARE THEY EVICTIONS OR NOT? SOME WONT COME BACK.. THOSE ARE "EVICTIONS" RIGHT?

Q. Going back to the Joe Slovo question, concerning their marching. Are the people of Joe Slovo losing faith in this department?

TOKYO SEXWALE: Well, I don’t think it is matter of them losing faith in the department. But it is matter of them not taking the responsibility. Many of them are not paying rent. Remember when they got into those houses, they were work-shopped and screened to check if they could pay rent. So if they are not able to pay rent, they need to engage with the department, so that together we can find solutions. At the moment we think it is being unfair to the department, as they say that they are not going to pay rent.
Joe Slovo, Phase 1, is a social housing project, and the principle of social housing is that you pay rent. You don’t have ownership over the property. So this is done to provide options, if you are one of those people who do not qualify for housing. We can’t say that when people refuse to pay rent it is okay... Those who don’t pay will be required to get out of the houses. They don’t qualify for that type of housing as an option. The message must go out that government does not allow anarchy.

Deputy Minister, Ms Zo Kota: Consumer education is critical, in the process of building human settlements. Areas like the N2 Gateway, if we don’t maintain those flat they are going to go down. We need the rents to maintain those flats. We have to make sure that we are partners in making systems work. The people must have a sense of ownership of the N2 Gateway.

YOU WANT THE PEOPLE TO HAVE A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP? THE MINISTER JUST SAID: "YOU DON'T HAVE OWNERSHIP OVER THE PROPERTY"... SO A "SENSE OF OWNERSHIP WILL HAVE TO DO?

Bazookas!?

Q. We see there is a lot of unrest in the country, but what do you mean by saying that you have to step in? You have given an example of the situation at the N2 Gateway, Joe Slovo. So what would you do to stop this attitude? (PMG)

Tokyo Sexwale: We must continue to engage, because we can easily do things that will have an opposite effect. So we must sit down and talk with people. I have dealt with situations where people were holding bazookas and we sat down and talked to these people. But where the law has got to roll in, it is going to do that. Anarchy is anarchy and has to be dealt with. (When has Tokyo ever had to deal with people holding bazookas....? He did training... came to South Africa was caught and then went to prison. Bazookas...? bullshit....!!!)

Government refuses talks with angry residents

Government leaders have branded service delivery protests in Happy Valley earlier on Monday as "purely political" and have refused to meet with the community.

About 150 residents of the informal settlement burnt tyres and rubbish across Wimbledon Street, a busy main road that runs passed the area in the early hours of Monday morning.

The road was closed off to traffic and by about 9am council workers moved in to clear up the debris and smoldering tyre residue that remained from the heated protest.

No arrests were made and no injuries were reported according to police at the scene.

- Cape Argus

A lesson in activism - from a convicted terrorist & Beepartheid regimist

Mosima 'Tokyo' Sexwale, a guerrilla terrorist of the African National Congress. Sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. Left politics after liberation to Beecome a successful BEE entrepreneur; Host of South Africa's The Apprentice. Rejoined politics and is currently Minister of Human Settlements.

Charge: ...Terrorism & 'Selling-out' black national liberation.. Treason.

Defendants response:

(...) We lived in poverty and we were all subjected to the humiliation which the whites imposed upon the blacks.

We lived in the same typical 'matchbox' houses; we were continually aware that there was not enough money available to meet our needs for food, clothing and education;

and when we went into town and saw the relative luxury in which white people lived, this made an indelible impression on our young minds...

It is true that I was trained in the use of weapons and explosives. The basis of my training was in sabotage, which was to be aimed at institutions and not people...

We believe, and I believe, that the black people cannot be passive onlookers in their own country. We want to be active participants in shaping the face and course of direction of South Africa.

My Lord, these are the reasons why I find myself in the dock today... I realised that the struggle for freedom would be difficult and would involve sacrifices. I was and am willing to make those sacrifices...

The Cold War: A history in documents

My how the view has changed from the R56 million palace - fuck you matchbox house people! -

I'm sorry but we can't have heresy around here...

Sexwale warns unruly protesters

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has warned that the government will take tough action against people who want to render any part of the country ungovernable.

"There are limits to social and political activism," he said on Tuesday. He was referring to violent protests over housing and services, and also to homeowners in towns deciding to withhold paying their rates.

Sexwale said the government was sensitive to the plight of people struggling with poverty.

'There should be zero tolerance for people who want to render any part of this country ungovernable'

"We know about, the recession, about people losing their jobs," he said. But where the government saw anarchy, it had to put a stop to it.

"There should be zero tolerance for people who want to render any part of this country ungovernable," he said.

Sexwale was responding to questions at a briefing after delivering his budget vote in Parliament, where he was asked about protests linked to the government's flagship N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town, which has been plagued by problems.

He said the government would continue to engage residents, but said: "The message must go out that the government does not allow anarchy, there has to be consistency and stability."

Sexwale said it was necessary for the government to engage, and that it should "not easily be provoked into doing things you regret". But he added: "Where the law's got to roll in, it will do that."

He said the government had to distinguish between organisations and activists acting legitimately and those "acting under other flags".

But Sexwale admitted mistakes had been made with the N2 Gateway that could have been avoided.

- The Star

Urbanisation 'fuels crime in W Cape'

Rapid urbanisation is one of the main contributors towards the Western Cape's high levels of crime with the province's murder, aggravated robbery and residential burglary rates increasing the most out of all the provinces in the past 14 years, an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) researcher has said.

Senior researcher for the ISS's crime, justice and politics programme Johan Burger said that over the past couple of years, there had been a massive influx of people into the province from other parts of the country.

This meant more people were without jobs and basic services, which in turn had an impact on crime levels.

Burger was reacting to recent research released by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR).

In a statement, the SAIRR suggested that the high incidence of crime, particularly murder and robbery, were linked to the province's wealth.

The Western Cape has the highest murder and robbery (business and residential) rates in the country.

In contrast, the province was found to be one of the wealthiest, contributing an impressive 14.5 percent to the economy's gross domestic product in 2007.

It also had a comparatively high ratio of police officers per person, with one police officer for every 300 people.

The SAIRR published details of the research in its Fast Facts newsletter.

"There seems to be a connection between the crime experienced by each province and the average income of the households living in that province," the newsletter said.

"The province with the highest average annual household income, the Western Cape, had the worst rates for murder, business burglary, residential burglary at a respective 59, 220 and 876 per 100 000 people. Between 1994 and 2008, the Western Cape's murder, aggravated robbery, and residential burglary rates increased the most out of all the provinces."

The province had an average household income of R147 648 in 2007.

Burger said drug and alcohol abuse were the most common contributors to crime in the province. However, rapid urbanisation was now also a major factor.

"You're having a massive influx of people when there is no infrastructure or services to provide for them because the government doesn't expect such numbers.

"When you couple that with poverty and unemployment, it creates a social condition that contributes to alcohol and drug abuse," he said.

People became desperate because of their living circumstance, Burger said. Some turned to alcohol and drugs, which fuelled crime; while a few others turned to crime to feed their families.

"I'm by no means saying that everybody turns to crime, but it does happen often in those circumstances," he said.

Burger explained the ISS was busy researching this topic, along with other aspects that determined the risk of crime.

He said he hoped the research would provide a springboard for follow-up research, such as field research and similar research with a more specific focus.

- Saturday Argus

NO VOTE NO HOUSE

Former MPs and their dependants, who are illegally occupying parliamentary houses, face eviction so the state can house new MPs who have been lodging at hotels at taxpayers' expense since May. (from IOL) Anyone can walk into Akacia Park! It's just that they don't want to leave!!!

House chairperson Ben Skosana told the National Assembly during Parliament's budget vote debate this week that the former MPs will be forced out of the parliamentary villages "where members and their dependants were not vacating the residences on time and the Department of Public Works had to initiate eviction processes".

Public Works spokesperson Thami Mchunu said "so far two MPs have been handed over to the state attorneys".

"The approximate period for eviction, on average, is three months but could be sooner depending on the co-operation of the member being evicted," said Mchunu.

An expert on property law told Weekend Argus that evictions, which involve lengthy legal process, could take at least a year and a half, if the occupants of the homes were unwilling to leave.

COPE complained earlier last month that its MPs had yet to be allocated houses, slamming the incompetence of the ANC.

National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu said he was not aware of accommodation problems.

An ANC MP told Weekend Argus that this week he did not mind staying at a hotel because it saved him from having to cook.

MPs are housed at the Holiday Inn Express in St George's Mall, a walking distance from Parliament.

The hotel's rates start at just over R700 a night.

Notices by the Department of Public Works are displayed at the reception and in hotel lifts, reminding MPs that they were limited to R120 a day for dinner, "including two soft drinks" and R200 a week for laundry.

MPs are entitled to a home or a flat for a nominal fee - less than R200. This was considered one of their perks.

Skosana admitted that some MPs were still staying at hotels.

"There are 342 members who are taking occupation at the residences, and unfortunately a few have had to be accommodated at hotels while their residences were being vacated or renovated," said Skosana.

Mchunu said 12 MPs were still accommodated at hotels and his department was paying the bill.

Skosana's revelations come after Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge said he wanted to review the policy on parliamentary villages to speed up the process of new MPs moving into their houses.

"I want to look at this policy because it has a number of implications in terms of cost factors.

"We know it's very difficult for people who have lived in a house for five years when they are not re-elected and then have to leave.

"But we have to find more creative ways to allow that the newly elected members move in quickly, that's the policy we are going to be working on," Doidge said last month.

Meanwhile, Sisulu has admitted that Parliament was experiencing financial strain despite his denial in an interview with the Sunday Independent two weeks ago.

Sisulu said a R143-million budget shortfall will make it difficult for MPs to do their jobs properly.

Parliament's budget for this year is R947m and has been severely pruned as a result of the government's cost-cutting due to the recession.

Sisulu said the amount allocated was below what was required and it would be difficult to give MPs - about 50 percent of whom are new - the necessary training and support.

Sisulu said Parliament received less money than the Department of Public Works.

The chairman of committee chairpersons, Obed Bapela, said departments that invited committee members to meetings outside Cape Town were now being asked to foot the bill for transport and meals, while Parliament carried the cost of accommodation only.

No evictions during 2010 - Minister of Human Settlements

Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale has clarified media speculations that government will evict people living in informal settlements to hide them from tourists during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Speaking at a post Local Organising Committee press conference on Thursday, Minister Sexwale said those were dense assumptions and government had never planned to evict people living in shacks.

“There is a no policy that says government must evict people who are living in poverty or in shacks nearby venues. We cannot do that.

“We cannot hide people from the view of tourists. Actually government wants to empower these people and we will be more excited if tourists can visit these areas and buy in spaza shops in townships,” he said.

LOC Chief Executive Officer, Danny Jordaan said government and the LOC cannot be hypocritical by hiding people who are stricken by poverty, adding that media must stop spreading unnecessary and fallacious statements.

“That is not a position and tourists have been in these areas and are part of South Africa. Why would the government hide them?

“When you land in Cape Town you fly over shacks. Government did not evict these people during the Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cup and other major international events, why now?” he said.

The Organising Committee Board met on Thursday to discuss the way forward to find solutions on how the challenges raised by FIFA President Sepp Blatter during the FIFA Confederations Cup could be improved.

Among the board members who attended the meeting were Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Zuma-Dlamini, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Jeff Radebe, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke and LOC Chairman Irvin Khoza.

Dr Khoza said the intention for the meeting was to identify the reactionary programmes that will ensure that the challenges of South Africa to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as raised by Mr Blatter, were dealt with accordingly and successfully.

“This meeting was very successful and we are ready to pursue our work with government, FIFA and host cities. We will have regular meetings to look at the issues relating to world cup such as budgets, among other things.

“As the board we are happy with the 7.5 points and we are looking forward to reach 10 points come 2010.

“We have taken all complaints, advices and complements from the public into account and we will utilize them as part of our strategic planning,” Dr Khoza said.

- SA2010

The battle for Constantia

The Western Cape provincial government is refusing to hand over the title deeds of the 1 000ha of prime land transferred to the newly established state Housing Development Agency (HDA) shortly before the national elections in April.

Premier Helen Zille's spokesperson, Robert MacDonald, told the Mail & Guardian last week that the provincial government still held the deeds and that transfer of the land could not proceed without them. After the ANC lost to the DA in the province, Zille accused the former ANC provincial government of "asset-stripping" and conducting the transfer of the land -- worth about R500-million -- in secret.

"The provincial government believes that the transaction is invalid and unenforceable," Solly Malatsi, media liaison officer in the Western Cape's ministry of transport and public works told the M&G.

Malatsi said a meeting with the minister of human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, and the chief executive officer of the HDA, Taffy Adler, was being sought in an attempt to resolve the matter and, failing that, legal action could follow. "The land, including Porter Estate, has not yet been transferred to the HDA. It has been stopped pending resolution of the matter," he said.

Several prime properties in Constantia, which could have been used for the resettlement of about 80 land claimant families, are included in the land parcels quietly moved to the HDA, which was set up to fast-track housing delivery. Other properties transferred to the HDA are in Mowbray, Parow, Pinelands, Southfield and Philippi.

Constantia land claimants, who fear they may lose out to other beneficiaries of low-cost housing, say they need prompt answers about the land transfer as they are "dying off" while they wait for settlement. Frank Marco (71) said a number of pieces of land, including the sprawling Porter Estate bordering Tokai Forest, had been identified in the past 15 years as sites that could be used for their resettlement.

"Land is lying vacant in Constantia and the land is growing weeds. The situation is pathetic. After all these years of broken promises, still nothing is being done. We don't know why the ANC transferred the Constantia land, but we do need answers."

Beverley Jansen, Western Cape regional land claims commissioner, said she was not "formally advised" provincial land would be handed over to national government.

"Gaining access to state land on behalf of our claimants is fraught with challenges for the Regional Commission Western Cape. We do not own any land and have to apply for land from different government departments, including municipalities.

In the case of Constantia, we applied for land for our Constantia claimants. We have completed all our own processes and are waiting only for the Department of Public Works to release land for Constantia and eight other land claims," she said. Jansen said the claimants were "anxiously waiting" for the release of land.

"In spite of meeting regularly regarding state land, I was not informed of the Constantia matter. We do not need thousands of hectares, just sufficient for about 80 families," she said. "Some families wish to return to urban farming and others just want a residential property. Our processes require that we give post-settlement support to all our claimants. We are ready to do so."

The land was signed over by former MEC of transport and public works Kholeka Mqulwana to former unionist Adler of the HDA on May 5 this year. It is believed the valuable land was transferred at no charge by the ANC provincial government on April 21, the day before the elections.

Porter Estate is one of the portions of land mooted by the former provincial government for low-cost houses for the second phase of the government's N2 project.

Adler refused to comment on the matter and said he was unaware of the Constantia land claimants' concerns about the transfer. Only project managers from the now technically insolvent government housing agent, Thubelisha Homes, would move over to the HDA, said Adler.

A project management company, Thubelisha has been involved in the government's flagship Gateway housing project in the Western Cape, which has been fraught with problems, including invasions by landless communities.

- M&G

N2 Gateway residents march on government

Cape Town - Hundreds of residents of the flagship N2 Gateway housing project marched through central Cape Town on Tuesday to plead for Western Cape provincial government intervention in the project.

Chair of the residents committee, Luthando Ndabamba, said they were unhappy at the way state housing developer Thubelisha homes was running the project.

Though there were 704 units, Thubelisha had no office on the premises.

"If we have any complaints we have to go to the city centre," he said.

"We won't get help [there], they will refer us to places like Johannesburg. That's not nice."

He said there were structural defects and plumbing problems, and the 704 units in the complex were becoming havens for drug dealers.

"Everything is just wrong in that complex," he said.

In addition, though residents were originally told they would be renting with an option to buy, the purchase option seemed to have disappeared.

Ndabamba said premier Helen Zille and housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela addressed the marchers outside the provincial administration building in Wale Street.

Zille had told them that though she was not promising anything, she would come to meet the residents and see where she could help.

She had said she knew the problems they were talking about, and that she herself had complained that the project was a failure.

The units that the protesters live in were erected on land formerly occupied by shack-dwellers, many of whom have been relocated to more distant areas of the Cape Flats.

The Gateway project has been dogged by protests and a series of court challenges over evictions.

- SAPA

Cops fire rubber bullets at protesters

Protests continued for a second night in Masiphumelele near Kommetjie after angry residents, unhappy with replies to their questions from the Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela.

Police fired rubber bullets at about 500 people who had gathered shortly after 6pm on Thursday night, baracading the entrance to the Masiphumelele off Kommetjie Road.

The protest follows a demand from backyard dwellers that land, set aside for another project, be used to house them.

Chairman of NGO Amakhaya Ngoku (Housing Now) Thembinkosi Kitchen said Thursday night's protest were fuelled after a visit to the area by Madikizela.

"Madikizela was here to see what was happening and seemingly people were not happy with his responses to their questions, instead they asked that Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale address them on their concerns.

Madikizela said demands made by the backyard dwellers were unrealistic.

"They expected me to provide them with accommodation because they had been evicted by their former landlords.

Madikizela said action from his department after the protests to house those left homeless would set a wrong precedent.

"Its important that we listen to people but people should also understand that they can't demand housing through protests, it would set a bad precedent.

Late last night police spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said situation was still tense and that no arrests had been made.

- Cape Times

Listen to the shack-dwellers

Tens of thousands of shack-dwellers in South Africa are doomed to be evicted to transit camps.

Last week the Constitutional Court gave the green light for the eviction of 20 000 people from Cape Town's Joe Slovo settlement to make way for the N2 Gateway Project. Most residents are to be relocated to the Delft temporary relocation area (TRA).

In 2005, 2 400 families from Langa, Cape Town, were relocated to a camp called Tsunami. In Johannesburg, 6 400 families in Protea South, Soweto, fought a plan to move them to a decant camp in 2007. In Durban, 52 families in Siyanda, KwaMashu, were evicted in December last year and moved to a transit camp to make way for a new freeway.

Transit camps, as they were known during apartheid, were used in the Fifties for the screening, segregation and repatriation of unwanted black urbanites. And in the ambiguous late apartheid years, progressive lawyers used transit camp legislation to prevent the removal of people to distant sites and service areas.

Today, recent court cases have raised the question: do transit camps qualify as "adequate alternative accommodation" as required by post-apartheid law?

For proponents in government, transit camps are "formal" and temporary, an acceptable stopgap in the process of delivering permanent houses. For households refusing relocation, transit camps are unacceptable even by the standards of informal dwellings and even if temporary -- which many are patently not.
Transit camp shelters ordinarily are one-room boxes of 25m² with tin roofs. Some are built in rows, with a single sheet of tin separating one family from another.

Often, the camps are without electricity. Some have outdoor communal taps, toilets or cold showers in tin or plastic structures. Toilets are massed together in rows.

Camps typically are encircled with fencing or barbed wire. Private security or police are stationed at lockable entry gates. Not only is access controlled, rules apply to camp life. Until two months ago, the Delft TRA had an armoured truck at its single entrance and was locked at particular hours. In the Protea South camp, spaza shops and other businesses will be banned.

Often transit camps are a long way from the shacks in which residents have lived for many years. In the Tsunami camp, some have lost their jobs as a result of relocation. Transport costs are higher; shops less accessible. Those with electricity in their shacks have had to revert to candles and paraffin stoves, both expensive and hazardous.

The erosion of social networks means occupants are in greater fear of their safety -- especially women when using communal toilets after dark. Children in Tsunami, not accommodated in local classrooms, were bussed 25km to school. In the Sol Plaatje camp in Johannesburg, those on HIV/Aids medication struggle to get access to treatment.

Some transit camps have taken on the status of permanent settlements. Happy Valley in Cape Town, originally built from government-issued poles and black sails, has been in existence for 12 years. Occupants who have been in the Tsunami camp for four years will be moved to the Delft TRA. In Symphony Way, 127 families will challenge their eviction to the Delft TRA in the Cape High Court in September.

From Langa to eMacambini to Siyanda, residents protesting against relocation -- whether for reasons of livelihood, location or autonomy -- have been portrayed as thwarting development. They have been illegally arrested, shot at with rubber bullets and seriously injured by the police.

A sustainable approach starts from the perspective of urban livelihoods, such as that of the shack-dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, in KwaZulu-Natal.

While formal housing is the desired option, the umjondolo (shack settlement) is not bad simpy because it is informal, but because it often lack services such as toilets. Its location also matters. A life is not improved by relocation from a shack to a distant "formal" structure.

National housing policy recognises this by prioritising in situ upgrading. But to rid KwaZulu-Natal of shack settlements by 2010, the province passed a Slum Elimination Act in 2007. Dubbed the "Polokwane Mandate", all provinces are expected to enact similar legislation. In this Act, transit camps are central to the elimination of slums.

In little over a year football tourists will visit eThekwini and other World Cup cities. They will be encouraged to visit museums to view the horrors of forced removals and transit camps under apartheid. Ironically, to get to the Cato Manor museum they may have to drive passed bulldozed shacks and present-day transit camps.

Authorities must understand the lives of shack-dwellers themselves. When residents say they prefer a shack to a transit camp this must be taken seriously. It is not a vote in favour of shacks, but a stronger vote against the alternative.

Kerry Chance, Marie Huchzermeyer and Mark Hunter are based at the universities of Chicago, Witwatersrand and Toronto respectively. - M&G

Masiphumelele residents stone police vehicle

Protesters blocked the entrance to the informal settlement of Masiphumelele near Kommetjie with burning tyres and stoned two of its vehicles on Wednesday, police spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said.

Police responded by firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

Steyn said the unrest had started late afternoon and by late Wednesday night police were still clearing the scene.

"People closed the road to Masiphumelele with tyres which were set alight. Two police vehicles were stoned. Rubber bullets were fired into the crowd."

Steyn was on Wednesday night unable to say what had sparked the protest.

Amakhaya Ngoku Housing Association secretary Bulelwa Jafta said the protest was started by backyard dwellers who wanted to build housing on a piece or land earmarked for development.

The backyarders had previously protested in October last year.

"The place they want to build their shacks is meant for another project, so they are not meant to build there," Jafta said.

Read the full story in Thursday's Cape Times

Joe Slovo eviction: Vulnerable community feels the law from the top down

OVER a period of 10 months commencing on August 17, the largest judicially sanctioned eviction of a community in SA’s post-apartheid period will take place. The 20000-strong impoverished community of the Joe Slovo informal settlement on the outskirts of Cape Town will be required to relocate 15km away to a temporary relocation area in Delft.

According to provincial and local government, their relocation is required to enable the upgrading and building of formal housing as part of the N2 Gateway Project. Following resistance by the residents to the relocation, the housing authorities applied for and obtained an eviction order from the Western Cape High Court in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, 1998. The residents of Joe Slovo appealed to the Constitutional Court and a weighty judgment was handed down on June 10.

The judgment is significant as it spells out the implications of the housing rights in section 26 of the constitution in circumstances when state organs seek to evict a large, settled community from their homes to facilitate a major housing development. The government will be taking note as the principles articulated in the judgment go to the core of its Breaking New Ground policy, of which the N2 Gateway is a key pilot project. In this policy, the Department of Human Settlements seeks to eradicate informal settlements through structured in situ upgrading, and, where this is not possible, through relocation of relevant communities.

In the case of Joe Slovo, the decision was that in situ upgrading was not feasible and the community should accordingly be relocated to Delft. An initial commitment that 70% of those relocated would be able to return to low- income housing in Joe Slovo morphed over time into a diffuse undertaking to apply “objective criteria” in allocating the housing units in Joe Slovo to the relocated community. The trust between communities and the representatives of the various spheres and agencies of government was further eroded by the fact that the first phases of the development did not give effect to the promise to accommodate 70% of the Joe Slovo residents. Moreover, the dream of a home was becoming ever more elusive as rentals in the development were pitched far higher than initially envisaged and more emphasis was placed on bonded housing which was inaccessible to the vast majority of the families, whose incomes were below R3500 a month. Moreover, many residents feared that the relocation to Delft would destroy their already fragile livelihood and communal networks, and that they would lack access to the schools, transport and other facilities on which they depended in the Joe Slovo settlement.

The Constitutional Court rejected the arguments of the residents that the state was not entitled to seek their eviction in terms of the act. It also held that their eviction and relocation to Delft to enable the upgrading and development of the Joe Slovo settlement was just and equitable in the circumstances.

However, three significant legal and practical victories were won by the residents. First, all five judges, who wrote separate judgments, underscored the necessity of the provision of adequate alternative accommodation when the state evicts a settled community from their homes. This obligation is derived from a long line of cases commencing with the groundbreaking Grootboom judgment in 2000, when the court held that the state must make reasonable provision for those facing homelessness or living in intolerable conditions. Not content to rely on vague guarantees regarding the nature of the alternative accommodation to be provided at Delft, the court stipulated detailed standards with which the “temporary accommodation units” in Delft had to comply, including the provision of services and facilities. Second, the government was ordered to allocate 70% of low-cost housing at Joe Slovo to the relocated communities (the remaining 30% would be allocated to the back-yarders of Langa). Finally, the authorities were required to “meaningfully engage” with the community on the nuts and bolts of the eviction, such as the timetable and the provision of transport facilities to places of work, schools and clinics.

Despite these important gains, the willingness to effectively condone the inadequate consultation processes raises serious concerns. This consultation process was littered with mixed messages conveyed by an array of officials, broken promises and, in the words of Judge Albie Sachs, the “frequent employment of a top-down approach, where the purpose of reporting back to the community was seen as being to pass on information about decisions already taken rather than to involve the residents as partners in the process of decision- making itself”. This represents the antithesis of the “structured, consistent and careful engagement” by “competent, sensitive” officials skilled in engagement which the court has previously underscored when state organs seek to evict large groups of vulnerable people.

A few of the judges held that the laudable objectives and greater good of the N2 Gateway project outweighed the defects in the consultation process. It would be too burdensome to expect higher standards from the state in these circumstances. This fails to take seriously the court’s own insight that procedure and substance are inextricably connected. Meaningful participation is not only an expression of the dignity of citizens, but is indispensable to ensuring that the design and implementation of programmes to realise socioeconomic rights are effective and sustainable. In the Joe Slovo case, for example, there are serious questions whether an in situ upgrade would have been less disruptive and more effective.

If “meaningful engagement” is not to become a meaningless platitude in realising socioeconomic rights, it must be taken seriously by the courts, which have a constitutional mandate to control all evictions of people from their homes. Unless this happens, the realisation of socioeconomic rights in SA will exhibit all the flaws of a top-down approach in which the intended beneficiaries have had little real say.

- Prof Liebenberg holds the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University and was a member of the legal team for the amici curiae in the Joe Slovo case.

- BusinessDay - News Worth Knowing