Appeal court overturns ruling that Drakenstein breached its emergency housing duty
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The Supreme Court of Appeal has set aside a Western Cape High Court judgment that found the Drakenstein municipality in breach of its constitutional and statutory obligations to provide emergency housing.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Thursday set aside a Western Cape High Court judgment that found the Drakenstein municipality in breach of its constitutional and statutory obligations to provide emergency housing. The SCA upheld the municipality's appeal and dismissed the declaratory orders and supervisory requirements the high court had imposed on the local authority.
The SCA found that the high court had wrongly shifted the burden of proof onto the state, requiring the municipality to disprove unreasonableness without first requiring the applicants to set out a clear factual basis for their claims.
The appeal arose from eviction proceedings brought by Green Willows Properties 2 in the Drakenstein magistrate's court against Eric Lolo and his daughter Bernice Fransman, who live on Farm Langkloof Roses in Drakenstein. Lolo registered on the housing waiting list in 2006, and Green Willows brought eviction proceedings in 2015 after his right to occupy his home was terminated following his retrenchment in 2013. The eviction case, brought under the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, is still pending.
The municipality, cited as the authority responsible for providing emergency housing to people evicted from their homes, accepted that responsibility but said it could not accommodate Lolo and Fransman at the time and could not say with certainty when accommodation would be available. It told the courts that about 19,500 people were seeking accommodation in Drakenstein, far exceeding availability, and that it had created between 400 and 800 formal housing opportunities a year with funding from the Western Cape provincial government. Lolo and Fransman then applied to the high court for ten declaratory orders.
Judge of Appeal Nambitha Dambuza said municipalities were required to set out housing delivery goals and land designation obligations in their integrated development plans under the Housing Act, and cannot escape responsibility for emergency housing by pointing to the roles of provincial and national government. She noted that the municipality's plans include the Vlakkeland project, a 2,500-unit development designed to include 500 emergency housing opportunities. The SCA made no costs order against Lolo and Fransman in either court.