On Thursday, 1 August 2024, the Western Cape Division of the High Court granted a variation order that underscores a victory for the voices of over 100 unhoused people occupying public spaces in seven sites around the Cape Town inner city, by removing all references to the provision of alternative accommodation at the Safe Space 1 shelter in Culemborg and replacing it with the new Ebenezer Safe Space 3 and Culemborg Safe Space 2, as adequate and dignified human habitation Safe Spaces.
Upon conducting a series of consultations with our clients from 25 to 28 June 2024, it became clear that despite the amended rules in the City’s Safe Spaces, Safe Space 1 is in a deplorable and inhabitable state unacceptable to our clients as it does not have surrounding walls and would expose our clients to the elements. This concern was aggravated by the timing, considering that Cape Town is in mid-winter with low temperatures and regular rainfall expected. Such conditions are not commensurate with the spirit of the High Court’s judgment and the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence concerning temporary adequate alternative accommodation.
For these reasons, on 9 July 2024, SERI filed a conditional application for leave to appeal against part of the judgment and order that required the City to provide alternative accommodation to all our clients to Safe Space 1. Following this, the City offered to all the occupiers, the Ebenezer Safe Space 3, a municipal depot building that will accommodate some 300 beds for single persons, and Culemborg Safe Space 2 for couples in a relationship with each other. Both these Safe Spaces have a shelter or shelters that are completely enclosed and offer absolute protection to our clients from the elements. Those people who live as a family together with their children will be referred to the Provincial Department of Social Development by the City in terms of the court order. Further, these Safe Spaces will function with amended rules taking away the day-time lock-out and allowing residency beyond six months for those residents who have not been able to secure accommodation. The unhoused occupiers of the sites agreed to these terms.
To that end, the occupiers and the City agreed to the terms of the variation order. The eviction date has shifted from 30 July 2024 to 12 August 2024 and a site-by-site relocation of all our clients will commence on 5 August 2024 up until 8 August 2024, with their current structures having to be dissembled before they are relocated and those possessions which they cannot take to the Safe Space, bagged, labelled and stored for them for 6 months.
SERI’s Senior Attorney Nkosinathi Sithole says, “This is an important development which reaffirms the voices and the dignity of many unhoused people in the inner city of Cape Town, our clients have also welcomed these developments and look forward to seeing their lives change and being part of a society where their universal human rights are protected and promoted”.
Contact details:
- Nkosinathi Sithole, SERI senior attorney, nkosinathi[at]seri-sa.org, 082 589 7473.
>> Download the full statement here.