Press Release 31 January 2024
Ndifuna Ukwazi, on behalf of Singabalapha Informal Settlement, has launched an application in the Western Cape High Court to review the City of Cape Town’s decision to rely on the Emergency Housing Programme (EHP) in respect of their eviction and relocation to the periphery of the city.
Singabalapha is located along Main Road in Observatory, a well-located and sought-after area of Cape Town. The members of the Singabalapha community (which means “We belong here” in isiXhosa) have lived there for more than four years. The community’s presence in informal structures is a necessity arising from poverty and the struggle to access adequate housing in a city where such access remains a luxury for the minority.
The review application arises from an application to evict the residents of the Singabalapha informal settlement brought by the City in August 2023. The City’s reliance on the EHP, offering alternative accommodation in a Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Delft South – 28 km away – is contested by Singabalapha. The review application challenges the City’s failure to consider the Upgrading Informal Settlement Programme (UISP) as a viable alternative. The UISP offers a legal framework safeguarding residents of informal settlements, prioritizing those at risk of eviction. It aims to protect their rights and dignity, preventing eviction without ensuring adequate alternative housing, addressing long-term tenure security, and improving access to suitable housing.
In comparison, the EHP is designed to provide immediate short-term shelter to individuals and families facing homelessness due to eviction or other emergencies. The City is notorious for creating relocation camps on the outskirts of the City, isolated from social networks, economic opportunities, transport routes and schooling. While intended to be a temporary solution, relocation camps have become de facto permanent and eviction into these camps exacerbates the crisis caused by eviction.
Singabalapha appreciates that the current location is not ideal for upgrading but the UISP provides for relocation in the immediate proximity as a last resort. They have identified a vast portfolio of vacant and unutilised public land in Observatory, Maitland, Pinelands, Thorton, Mowbray, Rosebank, Salt River, Woodstock, Claremont, Kenilworth, Rondebosch, Newlands, Athlone, Lansdowne, Sybrand Park, and City Bowl and Atlantic Seaboard that could provide the community with longer-term housing options in terms of site and service delivery. Relying on the UISP can result in more enduring and sustainable housing solutions, fostering community development and urban integration.
The City has a constitutional mandate to progressively realise our right to adequate housing and create conditions for equitable access to land. At a minimum, this responsibility requires avoiding regression in housing access when viable alternatives exist. In essence, it means that when there is a chance to strengthen tenure security and enhance access to adequate housing, the state is obligated to take that course.
According to Mildred Traore, an Applicant and member of the Singabalapha informal settlement:
“We have fought for the right to have equal access to the city but the City continues to push us out to dangerous, poverty-stricken areas on the outskirts. Living in informal settlements poses daily hardship. The City has chosen to worsen this. By sending us to an emergency housing camp, we will be stripped of our community, our livelihoods in the city and be left in an insecure, crisis situation indefinitely.”
The City’s failure to recognise the UISP as a viable alternative is a matter of concern and is not rationally related to the City’s objectives of promoting spatial transformation, enhancing security of tenure and lacks justification linking it to the purpose of fulfilling the City’s housing obligations.
According to Dr Jonty Cogger, attorney for the Applicants:
“The City has an opportunity to set up the pathway to a dignified life for the Singabalapha community and contribute to our shared vision of a more equitable society. At its disposal, the City has the legal machinery and vacant land to respond to the eviction of the Singabalapha community in a way that is thoughtfully woven into its broader spatial transformation and housing obligations. Instead, the City has opted for an approach that exacerbates existing inequalities by sending the community off to a far-flung dumping ground. It is irrational and unreasonable for the City to continue to ignore viable and more humane alternatives to address housing needs.”
Read the Singabalapha Community Review application here.
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