Category Archives: Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions

Open Letter to Obed Mlaba and Michael Sutcliffe from COHRE

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3 October 2007
Cllr Obed Mlaba
eThekwini Mayor
Tel: + 27 31 311 2110
Fax: +27 31 311 2111
Email: mayorspa@durban.gov.za

Dr Michael Sutcliffe
eThekwini City Manager
PO Box 1014
Durban 4000
Tel: + 27 31 311 1100
Fax: + 27 31 311 2170

Dear Cllr Mlaba and Dr Sutcliffe,

RE: Urgent housing concerns and recent events in Durban

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions. In South Africa, COHRE has been monitoring and researching housing rights issues in Johannesburg, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town.

COHRE wishes to express its deep concern at the persistent antagonistic attitude and repressive actions of the authorities towards the legitimate grievances of shack dwellers in the eThekwini Municipality, which are currently being articulated through various organisations, including the shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. These organisations’ attempts at engagement have been, and continue to be, met with unjust and counterproductive responses from city officials and the South African Police Service (SAPS).

On 28 September 2007, various organisations representing shack dwellers in the eThekwini Municipality marched on the Mayor’s office to present a memorandum to the Mayor.

According to reliable sources on the scene, including a number of church leaders, the march was legal and peaceful, and no warning was given to disperse before the police attacked.

Those who attended sought to publicly present their legitimate demands and concerns to the Mayor regarding a range of housing and land issues, including ongoing forced evictions.

COHRE is deeply disturbed that police responded to the lawful gathering with an unjustified use of force, using water cannons, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowd who had come to deliver the memorandum to the Mayor. COHRE is also concerned about the subsequent arrest by the police of fourteen participants for ‘public violence’. The methods used on the day were reminiscent of scenes in pre-1994 South Africa and are universally regarded as totally unacceptable.

The shack dwellers’ memorandum presented concerns about housing issues in the eThekwini Municipality, the KwaZulu-Natal Province and the country – concerns which COHRE fully endorses – namely:

• ongoing forced evictions from shacks and farms, including evictions without a court order and without the provision of alternative housing, in violation of the Prevention of
Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Act and the South African Constitution;
• inadequate access to services such as water, sanitation, and electricity, leading to shack fires from flames used for cooking and heating and security concerns for many who go to the toilet at night, particularly for women who risk being raped;
• the deficit in the affordable housing stock, leading to homelessness and overcrowding in
shacks; and
• the obstruction of visits to graves of ancestors.

COHRE urges the eThekwini Municipality to become more attentive to shack dwellers’ concerns and demands, and for the Municipality to encourage, instead of repress, a democratic process of consultation and cooperation to address land and housing issues in eThekwini.

We respectfully suggest that the eThekwini Municipality should urgently meet with community representatives and organisations to discuss the issues at stake and proposals for practical alternatives to current Municipal policies.

Furthermore, COHRE urgently requests the eThekwini Municipality to declare a moratorium on evictions in order to allow calm to return to this situation.

Lastly we urge the eThekwini Municipality to urgently formulate and implement a comprehensive policy to address the dire shortage of adequate housing and to ensure that no persons are made homeless by Municipal policies and actions.

We look forward to your response and to an ongoing dialogue with you on these urgent matters.

Sincerely,
Jean du Plessis
Deputy Director
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions

cc. Dr Lindiwe Sisulu
Ministry of Housing
Private Bag X645
Pretoria 0001
Tel: +27 12 421 1309
Fax: + 27 12 341 2998

cc. Mrs Brigitte Mabandla
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development
Private Bag X276
Pretoria 0001
Tel: +27 12 315 1332
Fax: + 27 12 315 1749

Letter from CALS and COHRE to the South African Government in support of the residents of Joe Slovo settlement

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(Click on the link below to read the original version of the letter on the letterhead.)

26 September 2007
Dr Lindiwe Sisulu
Minister of Housing
Private Bag X654
Pretoria
0001
Tel: +27 12 421 1309
Fax: +27 12 341 8513
Email: mareldia@housing.gov.za

Dear Minister Sisulu

RE: Relocation of Joe Slovo informal settlement residents

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights nongovernmental
organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world.

COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions.
The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) is a human rights and public interest law organisation based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

COHRE and CALS wish to express their deep concern over the planned relocation of approximately 6000 Joe Slovo residents to Delft due to the implementation of the second phase of the N2 Gateway housing project. While the Government is offering alternative accommodation at Delft with running water, electricity and toilets, as well as organising for buses to take children to school and other relocation needs, residents are distressed over the
arrangement because Delft is on the outskirts of the city, far from their places of work, job opportunities and schools. The housing to be built on the Joe Slovo site, reportedly, will house only 1000 people and is unlikely to be affordable to the majority of Joe Slovo residents, as it is ‘gap’ housing, intended for those earning between 3,500 and 7,500 rand a month.

Many residents have been living at Joe Slovo for over ten years, establishing a settled community there, and object to the fact that the N2 Gateway housing being built on their homes is unaffordable and hence inaccessible to them. Residents are offering to work with Government to
develop better housing and infrastructure at Joe Slovo, and are at present contesting the application for an eviction order by the Ministry of Housing, following an interim eviction order handed down by the Cape High Court.

On 3 August 2007, residents of Joe Slovo marched in protest against their relocation to Delft to make way for the second phase of the project, demanding that their grievances be heard by Government or further protests would ensue. However, residents argue that there was little real
attempt on behalf of the Government and its housing subsidiary, Thubelisha, to actively engage with the community and address their concerns – but rather representatives merely met with the community to inform them of their fate. The protest attended by approximately 2000 people on the N2 freeway on 10 September 2007 was a response to the lack of consultation and cooperation extended to Joe Slovo residents.

While the Government’s advances in reducing the country’s immense housing backlog and providing low-cost housing are commendable, the eviction of residents from their homes to
outlying areas to make way for those who can afford such housing is counterproductive.

COHRE and CALS respectfully remind the Government of South Africa that in terms of international human rights law, for evictions to be considered as lawful, they may only occur in very exceptional circumstances and all feasible alternatives must be explored in consultation with
affected persons. If, and only if, such exceptional circumstances exist and there are no feasible
alternatives, can evictions be deemed justified. Furthermore, evictions should not result in
rendering individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights. Governments must therefore, ensure that adequate alternative housing is available to affected persons. General Comment No. 4 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
lists a number of considerations, “which must be taken into account in determining whether particular forms of shelter can be considered to constitute ‘adequate housing’.” These include:
a) Legal security of tenure
b) Availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure
c) Affordability
d) Habitability
e) Accessibility
f) Location
g) Cultural adequacy

In particular, General Comment No. 4, section 8(f) explains: “Adequate housing must be in a location which allows access to employment options, health-care services, schools, child-care centres and other social facilities.”
Furthermore, the Government of South Africa is legally bound to respect, protect and fulfil the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Indeed, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2002 found that the African Charter guaranteed the right to adequate housing
including the prohibition on forced eviction (see SERAC and CESR v. Nigeria, ACHRP 2002).

COHRE and CALS urgently request the Ministry of Housing to reconsider the continued plans for the eviction of communities in Joe Slovo and further urges the Ministry to “explore all feasible alternatives” to the planned evictions. If no feasible alternative is available, following indepth consultations with the affected communities, COHRE and CALS strongly urge that the
Ministry abide by international human rights standards, and in particular the legal requirement that affected persons receive adequate alternative housing.

We look forward to your response and to an ongoing dialogue with your office on the rights of its people to adequate housing. Thank you very much for your time and consideration in dealing with these very important issues.

Sincerely,

Jean du Plessis Professor Cathi Albertyn
Deputy Director Director
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions Centre for Applied Legal Studies
83 Rue de Montbrillant University of the Witwatersrand
1202 Geneva Wits 2050
Switzerland Johannesburg
Tel: +41 22 734 1028 Tel: +27 11 717 8600
Email: evictions@cohre.org Email: albertync@law.wits.ac.za

cc. Richard Dyantyi
Western Cape Housing and Local Government MEC
Private Bag X9076
Cape Town
8000
Tel: + 27 21 483 4466
Email: shmajiet@pgwc.gov.za

cc. Prince Xhanthi Sigcawu
General Manager, Thubelisha
129 Bree Street
Cape Town
8001
Tel: + 27 21 487 9200
Email: jerimiat@thubelisha.co.za