Dr. Pieterse (University of the Witwatersrand)
Towards a right to the city? The slow convergence of rights to housing and land in South African constitutional jurisprudence
Rights work slowly. In South Africa, initial assessments of the judicial vindication of a constitutionally entrenched right to housing suggested that, while the right provided protection against eviction and could address emergency housing situations, it was of limited use in addressing structural injustice pertaining to unequal access to housing in cities and towns. But over time, judicial vindication of the right to housing has served to give poor and vulnerable communities a foothold in South African cities, which is productively being leveraged by social movements claiming a right to the city. Meanwhile, a separate remedial framework around land rights appears to be slowly converging with the housing jurisprudence, in ways that hold significant potential for transformative change. This talk briefly traces these processes, with a focus on their culmination in the recent judgment of the Cape High Court in Adonisi v Minister for Transport and Public Works: Western Cape, which prohibited the sale of publicly-owned inner city land and mandated its use towards affordable housing.
About the monthly EVICT talks:
On the third Thursday of every month, we will have a speaker on a topic related to evictions, the right to housing, housing law, the (complex) relation between international law and national law, and/or data science. Each month, we will have a different international speaker (ranging from scholars to practitioners) who will offer fascinating insights into their area of expertise.
For now, the talks will be held online. Each of these talks will begin at 4:00 pm and end at 5:00 pm (Amsterdam Time, UTC+01:00).
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