Policy & Law – Documents, Analysis & Guides

South African Government Documents (Policy & Law)

• Breaking New Ground – SA Government’s New Housing Policy August, 2004
• KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Housing: 2004- 2007 Strategic Plan, 2004
• ‘Upgrading Informal Settlements’, Chapter 13 of the Housing Code October, 2004
• Realising Socio Economic Rights in South Africa – The Obligations of Local Government, 2006
• The eThekwini Municipality’s First Response to Abahlali’s Promotion of Access to Information Act request, November 2006
• A draft of the government’s Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill, 2006
• The KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill, 2006
• The eThekwini Municipality’s Land Audit and Housing List Files Received April 2007.
• Parliamentary Debate of the The KwaZulu Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act, August 2007
• The KwaZulu Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act, August 2007
• The Social Housing Bill, 2007
• Framewok for an Inclusionary Housing Policy in South Africa, June 2007.
• eThekwini Integrated Development Plan, June 2007

Analysis of Policy and Law in South Africa

• Invasions, evictions and the law in South Africa, Marie Huchzermeyer, 2004
• Business as Usual: Housing Rights and ‘Slum Eradication’ in Durban, South Africa, Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions, 2008
• The KwaZulu-Natal Slums Bill: An Illustration of an Institutional Shift in Democracy, by Mikelle Adgate, Scot Dalton, Betsy Fuller Matambanadzo, Perspectives on Global Issues, Fall 2008
• Housing in Informal Settlements: A Disjuncture Between Policy and Implementation, by Marie Huchzermeyer, February 2009
• Webber Wentzel, pro bono report, 2008 March 2009
• The KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act: Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated by Richard Pithouse, May 2009
• It’s the state that is flouting the law by Richard Pithouse, May 2009
• The deficiency of reality in the Joe Slovo judgment, by Kate Tissington, June 2009
• Why Cape legal twist looks like a demolition of justice for poor, by Jackie Dugard & Kate Tissington, July 2009
• Will Zuma administration open its ears to the streets? by Jane Duncan, August 2009
• A Progressive Policy Without Progressive Politics: Lessons from the failure to implement ‘Breaking New Ground’ by Richard Pithouse, (written February 2009, published October 2009)
• Constitutional Water Rights Judgment Gets It Wrong, Jackie Dugard, October 2009
• Breaking the Tie: Evictions from private land, homelessness and a new normality by Stuart Wilson, South African Law Journal, 2009
• Does recent litigation bring us any closer to a right to the city?, by Marie Huchzermeyer, 2009
• Experiences of Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Kennedy Road Settlement, Durban, South Africa, by Malavika Vartak, 2009
• Centre for Applied Legal Studies Workshop on Meaningful Engagement, various authors, 2009
• The courts, accountability and participatory democracy, Geoff Budlender, 2010
• Civic Action and Legal Mobilisation: The Phiri Water Meters Case, Jackie Dugard, 2010
• Local Despotisms and the Limits of the Discourse of “Delivery” in South Africa, Richard Pithouse, 2011
• ‘From shack to the Constitutional Court’: The litigious disruption of governing global cities, Anna Selmeczi, The Utrecht Law Review, April 2011

Guides to the Law In South Africa

• A Guide to Tenure Security Rights on Farms, Lawyers for Human Rights
• The Right to Protest: A Handbook for Protesters and the Police, Freedom of Expression Institute, 2007
• Holding Your Ground: Resisting Evictions in South Africa, 2009
• Engaging meaningfully with government on socio-economic rights: A focus on the right to housing, Lilian Chenwi & Kate Tissington, 2010
• A Resource Guide to Housing in South Africa 1994-2010, by Kate Tissington, Socio-Economic Rights Institute, 2011

Documents from Other Governments

• The Arusha Declaration Tanzania, 1967
• The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Ordinance Naga City, Philippines 1997
• Statute of the City Brazil, 2001
• Mexico City Charter for the Right to the City, Mexico, 2010

International Guides to Resisting Eviction & Asserting the Right to the City

• Averting Evictions, Cohre, 2008
• Cities for All: Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City, Habitat International Coalition, 2010
• How People Face Evictions, by Yves Cabannes, Silvia Guimarães Yafai and Cassidy Johnson, Development Planning Unit, University College of London, 2010

Documents from Legal Actions Against Evictions in South Africa

• Two sets of documents from the Legal Resources Centre, successfully fending off the City’s illegal evictions in Motala Heights, Nov-Dec 2006, here and here.
• The Founding of Motala Heights An Affidavit by Bhekuyise Ngcobo, 2006
• Comment by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand on Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill, 2006
• Court orders Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the SAPS to rebuild shacks that they illegally destroyed, 30 May 2007.
• Submission of COHRE and the Community Law Centre as Amici Curiae to the Constitutional Court In the matter between the occupiers of 51 Olivia Road, Berea & 197 Main Street, Johannesburg against the City of Jo’burg & others, 2007
• Opinion by Kirsty McLean and Prof. David Zeffertt on the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act, September 2007.
• Compendium of legal documents filed against Ricky Govender, 2006
• Johannesburg High Court in the matter of Lingwood v Occupiers ERF9 Highlands, 16 October 2007
• Constitutional Court Settlement between Berea Township Residents and Johannesburg City, 30 October 2007.
• Opinion by Kirsty McLean and Prof. David Zeffertt on the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act, September 2007
• Full Court Papers for Abahlali baseMjondolo Challenge on the Slums Act, February 2008
• Cape High Court Gives Eviction Order to Joe Slovo Residents, 10 March 2008
• Community Law Centre (UWC) and COHRE Amici submissions to the Constitutional Court for the Joe Slovo Case, 2008
• Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Excerpt on South Africa), January 2009
• Abahlali baseMjondolo answering affidavit in the Siyanda matter, January 2009
• Constitutional Court Judgment in the Joe Slovo Eviction Case, June 2009

Documents from Other Legal Actions in South Africa

• The right to basic services in informal settlements: Notes on Harry Gwala High Court Hearing 12 December 2008, by Marie Huchzermeyer
• South Gauteng High Court Judgment on LPM Protest South Case, August 2009

United Nations, Human Rights Reports etc (and analysis and critique of these)

• The Challenge of Slums by the United Nations, 2003
• International Trends in Housing Policy by Warren Smit, 2004
• World Charter on the Right to the City Social Forum of the Americas and World Urban Forum, 2004
• The global governance response to informal settlements – relieving or deepening marginalisation? by Marie Huchzermeyer, 2005
• State of the Cities Report by the South African Cities Network, 2006
• Report on the Public hearing on Housing, Evictions, and Repossessions, South African Human Rights Commission, 2008
• Millennium Development Goals & the Realisation of Economic and Social Rights in South Africa: A Review, South African Human Rights Commission, 2008

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