PRESS STATEMENT: 22 February 2024
The Bromwell families, who have lived in their homes for generations, face eviction into homelessness. Prior to the eviction order, residents of Bromwell rented their homes for amounts ranging from R300 to R2,000 per month before the property was sold to the Woodstock Hub in 2014. The Woodstock Hub sought to evict the families and redevelop the property to achieve higher rental incomes of R5,000 to R9,000 per month.
The City’s constitutional duty to provide emergency housing in a location as close as possible is of paramount importance in such instances. However, the City initially denied this duty, triggering legal proceedings that have culminated in the present appeal. The City makes no provision for emergency housing in the inner-city areas despite the need for this growing exponentially due to high levels of gentrification in these areas and the state’s failure to regulate development and ensure the development of truly affordable housing.
The City has no clear plan and its response to emergency housing needs has been to relocate people to distant and under-resourced “temporary relocation areas” (like Blikkiesdorp) or “incremental development areas” (like Wolwerivier) and more recently to “existing informal settlements on the outskirts of the City,” (like Mfuleni and Kampies).
The Bromwell families were successful in their constitutionality challenge in the Western Cape Division of the High Court. The City then appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). The SCA, while ordering the City to provide the Bromwell families with emergency accommodation in a location as close as possible, upheld the City’s appeal against the constitutionality challenge. The Bromwell families now appeal to the Constitutional Court and will argue that the SCA erred in failing to conclude that the High Court was correct in finding on the evidence before it, that the City’s housing programme and conduct in implementing its housing programme, was arbitrary, unreasonable and unconstitutional.
Disha Govender, Attorney for the Bromwell families commented:
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