KZN Slums Act
Encyclopedia
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
.
as a response to housing conditions. Its stated purpose is 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. It also forced private landowners to evict shack dwellers. It was meant to be replicated in all other South African provinces.
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.
took the government to court to have the Act declared unconstitutional. It lost in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court
but then appealed directly to the Constitutional Court.
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.
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
The Act
The Slums Act was a highly controversial Act supported by the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-NatalKwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
as a response to housing conditions. Its stated purpose is 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. It also forced private landowners to evict shack dwellers. It was meant to be replicated in all other South African provinces.
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.
The Road to the Constitutional Court
The squatters' movement Abahlali baseMjondoloAbahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo , also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now...
took the government to court to have the Act declared unconstitutional. It lost in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court
KwaZulu-Natal High Court
Two divisions of the High Court of South Africa are called the KwaZulu-Natal High Court. The Kwa-Zulu-Natal High Court, Pietermaritzburg has jurisdiction over the whole province of KwaZulu-Natal...
but then appealed directly to the Constitutional Court.
Abahlali baseMjondolo argued that the province was mandated to deal with housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
rather than land tenure
Land tenure
Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...
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.
The Act is 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.Intimidation Following the Judgment
It was reported that following the judgment members of the movement were publicly threatened for their comments criticising the Slums Act.Significance of the Judgment
The Slums Act is one of the best known judgments by the Constitutional Court in South Africa.See also
- 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
- The KwaZulu-Natal Slums Bill: An Illustration of an Institutional Shift in Democracy, by Mikelle Adgate, Scot Dalton, Betsy Fuller Matambanadzo, Perspectives on Global Issues, Fall, 2008
- Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right To The City In Africa, by Marie HuchzermeyerMarie HuchzermeyerMarie Huchzermeyer is an academic and public intellectual at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.-Books:...
, University of Cape Town Press, 2011