Constitutional Court Dismisses Leave to Appeal for Schubart Park Crisis

Lawyers for Human Rights is disappointed with today’s decision by the Constitutional Court to dismiss leave to appeal on behalf of the residents of the Schubart Park flats in Pretoria. As hundreds of families struggle to secure emergency accommodation and the City of Tshwane continues to remove the residents’ belongings in the absence of any Court order or legal mechanism authorizing it to do so, Lawyers for Human Rights’ urgent application to the Constitutional Court was dismissed as it is “not in the interests of justice to hear it at this stage”.

The City of Tshwane evacuated the Schubart Park buildings on Wednesday, 21 September 2011, following service delivery protests in one of the buildings by a small group of disgruntled youths. The City gave an undertaking that residents would be allowed to return to their homes once the South African Police had declared the situation safe. By 12h00 on Thursday morning the City had failed to allow residents to return. An urgent application to allow the Schubart Park residents to return was brought by Lawyers for Human Rights and heard by the High Court on Thursday, 23 September 2011. 

This application was dismissed on the basis of evidence lead by City of Tshwane employees that the buildings were too dangerous for the thousands of families to return. The City of Tshwane is responsible for the maintenance of the buildings and has refused for more than three years to address the pleas of the Schubart Park residents to control access to the buildings and perform the necessary maintenance work.

The City of Tshwane made submissions to the High Court that emergency accommodation would immediately be made available for the approximately 8000 people which the City believed reside in the buildings,. This accommodation did not materialize and the Schubart Park residents were forced to live on the side of the road. Despite the City’s clear inability to accommodate the displaced families, most of whom are South African citizens, the City continued to force the residents from their homes and refused to engage with Lawyers for Human Rights as to what emergency measures would be put in place.

On Monday, 3 October 2011, more than ten days following the evictions, the City had only managed to provide 180 units. Approximately 70 of these are single rooms, expected to accommodate entire families. The two shelters made available by charitable organizations cannot accommodate families and require the evictees to leave the premises during the day. It is unclear how long these shelters will be available. Families have been split and others have been living in vehicles since the eviction.

When Lawyers for Human Rights attempted to engage the City representatives regarding this crisis situation the response was to the effect that the Schubart Park residents “cannot expect muffins when all they should get is bread.” LHR fears that the callous and inhumane attitude of the City of Tshwane is expected to worsen following the decision of the Constitutional Court.

LHR will now lodge an application for leave to appeal to the SCA. This process is expected to take months and it is uncertain where the Schubart Park residents will reside in the meantime. The residents have lost their homes without the application of a single legislative mechanism or reference to factors set out in the well-established body of law surrounding evictions in South Africa. An eviction of this scale, in the absence of due consideration and alternative accommodation, is particularly disturbing in the light of South Africa’s history and the concerted efforts of the legislature and the courts in the past ten years to prevent the reccurrence of evictions with such detrimental social consequences and the resulting massive homelessness.

LHR will attempt to ensure City of Tshwane complies with its undertakings but the City is already in contempt of the High Court’s order. From our experience with the City of Tshwane, however, the City continues to ignore contempt proceedings and continues to act without any legal authority to do so. Some Schubart Park residents have expressed to us that they gave lost all faith in the legal system. As one resident remarked “how could it ever be in the interests of justice that my children and I remain homeless while the MMC dances in the street.”

For more information, please contact:

Jacob van Garderen                                             Nathaniah Jacobs

National Director                                                   Land and Housing Unit

Lawyers for Human Rights                                  Lawyers for Human Rights

012-320-2943 / 082-820-3960                            012 320 2943 / 071 608 6658