The KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act, 2007 (the "KZN Slums Act") was a provincial law dealing with land tenure and evictions in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.‘From shack to the Constitutional Court’: The litigious disruption of governing global cities , by Anna Selmeczi, Utrecht Law Review, April 2011
The Act
The Slums Act was a highly controversial Act supported by the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal as a response to housing conditions. Its stated purpose was to eliminate substandard housing conditions by giving the provincial Housing MEC authority to prescribe a time in which it would be compulsory for municipalities to evict unlawful occupiers of slums when landowners failed to do so.Concourt to rule on Slums Act, SAPA, 13 October 2009Slum law evictions ruled to be unlawful, Business Day, 15 October 2009 It also forced private landowners to evict shack dwellers. Why 2010 Could Be An Own Goal for the Rainbow Nation, Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 30 December 2009 It was meant to be replicated in all other South African provinces.So what difference does it make? Socio-economic rights and democratising development in South Africa , Peris Jones, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, 27 April 2011
The Act was widely criticised by civil society organisations and academics who said it was in conflict with the South African Constitution and PIE Act and who considered it to be repressive and anti-poor legislation.Comment on KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Bill, 2006, 13 May 2007The KwaZulu Natal Slums Act: Bloody legislation against the expropriated , Richard Pithouse, PambazukaWhy Ramatlhodi promotes an autocratic kleptocracy, Pierre de Vos, 1 September 2011
Constitutional Court of South Africa judgment
The road to the Constitutional Court
The squatters' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo took the government to court to have the Act declared unconstitutional. It lost in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Durban but then appealed directly to the Constitutional Court.Shack dwellers' victory bus, Mail & Guardian, 24 May 2009
Abahlali baseMjondolo argued that the province was mandated to deal with housing rather than land tenure and that the act dealt with evictions and slum eradication rather than the provision of housing. They also argued that the act was vague and gave too much power to the provincial government that was in conflict with section 26 of the constitution that deals with housing and eviction rights.Constitutional Court Media Summary: Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA v Premier KZN and Others, 14 May 2009Eliminate the Slums Act – Original press statement and digital archive
The Act judged unconstitutional
On 14 October 2009, the South African Constitutional Court found the law to be in conflict with the Constitution and struck it down. Costs were awarded to Abahlali baseMjondolo. According to the judgement, the legislation would have allowed for the possibility of mass evictions without the possibility of suitable alternative accommodation and would have therefore violated the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act (PIE Act) and South Africa's Constitution.Shack dwellers’ victory, The Witness, 15 October 2009Shack dwellers celebrate Concourt victory, The Times, 15 October 2009
Intimidation and violence following the judgment
It was reported that following the judgment members of the movement were publicly threatened for their comments criticising the Slums Act.Ruling in Abahlali case lays solid foundation to build on, Marie Huchzermeyer, 4 November 2009 It has also been argued that the judgment was a key factor in the armed attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban in September 2009.Marie Huchzermeyer, (2011).Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right To The City In Africa University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town
Significance of the judgment
The Slums Act is one of the best known judgments by the Constitutional Court in South Africa.Clarion call for a better way Imraan Buccus, The Mercury, 19 May 2010 It has been argued that after the judgment the state abandoned its plans to eradicate shack settlements by 2014.Tokyo Sexwale's Failed Apprenticeship, SACSIS, 2010
References
External links 2007 KwaZulu-Natal Elimination & Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act October 2009 Constitutional Court Judgement on the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination & Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act Video: 'From Shacks to the Constitutional Court' Slums Act digital archive ‘From shack to the Constitutional Court’: The litigious disruption of governing global cities , by Anna Selmeczi, Utrecht Law Review, April 2011 How People Face Evictions, Prof. Yves Cabannes et al., Development Planning Unit, University College of London (DPU/UCL), May 2011 , by Mikelle Adgate, Scot Dalton, Betsy Fuller Matambanadzo, Perspectives on Global Issues, Fall, 2008 Interview with Mnikelo Ndabankulu in The Guardian (UK), Mnikelo Ndabankulu, 2009 Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right To The City In Africa , by Marie Huchzermeyer, University of Cape Town Press, 2011 Constitutional Court more pro-poor than the government, Pierre de Vos, Constitutionally Speaking, 2011 Marie Huchzermeyer, (2011).Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right To The City In Africa University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town Anna Selmeczi, 2012 "We are the people who do not count": Thinking the disruption of the biopolitics of abandonment, PhD Thesis Mark Hunter & Dorrit Posel, 2012 Here to work: the socioeconomic characteristics of informal dwellers in post-apartheid South Africa, Environment & Urbanization Copyright Vol 24.(1), pp. 285–304. DOI: 10.1177/0956247811433537 "What He Has Been Jailed For, Has Never Been Achieved": A Film Review of Dear Mandela, by Charles F. Peterson, The Journal of African Philosophy, Vol.5, 2012