Housing advocacy groups have been calling for the Tafelberg site to be used as affordable housing for the last eight years.
- The Supreme Court of Appeal has still not handed down judgment in the key Tafelberg housing case, a year after judgement was reserved.
- Housing activists are challenging a bid by the Western Cape government to sell the site of the old Tafelberg school in Sea Point to a private school. They say the site should be used for affordable housing.
- The President of the Supreme Court of Appeal says concern that the ruling is taking too long “is perfectly understandable and justified”.
- Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure has said the site “has been identified as a strategic property to address spatial transformation”.
On 20 February 2023, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) reserved judgment in the Tafelberg case, in which housing activists are challenging a bid by the Western Cape government to sell the Tafelberg site in Sea Point to a private school for R135-million. A year later, judgment has still not been handed down.
The attempt to sell the site, formerly the Tafelberg Remedial School, in 2015 was challenged by housing activists through protests and in the courts. In 2020, the Western Cape High Court set aside the Province’s decision to sell the property. The judgment also described the state’s duties to address spatial apartheid. The Western Cape government then appealed against this decision in the SCA.
The applicants in the SCA case are the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town. The respondents are members of activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, and the national government.
The judicial norms and standards state that except for “exceptional cases where it is not possible to do so, every effort shall be made to hand down judgments no later than three months after the last hearing”.
The SCA has been one of the best-performing courts and usually delivers judgments within the required three-month period, according to Mbekezeli Benjamin, Research and Advocacy officer at Judges Matter. This also reflects what is recorded in a database of reserved judgments that GroundUp is maintaining.
Benjamin said Judges Matter has been monitoring late judgment trends in the courts. “This Tafelberg case is the outlier. It has taken much longer than the other cases. That is something that really needs an explanation. The judges need to explain, hopefully in the judgment, why it has taken so long because it is really out of the ordinary.”
In response to questions sent to the Office of the Chief Justice, SCA president Justice M B Molemela wrote: “I confirm that steps have indeed been taken to ascertain why the judgment has not yet been delivered. I have received an assurance that the judgment will be handed down in the near future. My estimation is that the judgment will probably be delivered within the next three weeks.”
Benjamin said the case had been heard by a full bench of five judges, which included four permanent judges.
“In 2023 the cases have generally taken much longer than in previous years. The fact that this has taken a year is a big deal.”
He said the ruling would not only affect the Western Cape. “It will be a national issue. It will obviously affect how the different provinces and municipalities across the country relate to each other when it comes to housing delivery,” he said.
“There are not enough judges across the country,” said Benjamin. “A lot of the senior, experienced judges are reaching retirement age.” But, he said, this was not a reason for the Tafelberg case to be delayed.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure has issued a notice on its website saying that the site “has been identified as a strategic property to address spatial transformation”. The department said it had appointed environment professionals to “conduct various enablement and planning strategies and detailed studies to guide any future development explorations and secure appropriate development rights” on the property, which is described as “353 on Main”. A public engagement process would take place.
Ndifuna Ukwazi, along with Reclaim the City, have for eight years been calling for the vacant site to be used for affordable housing. The organisations said they were disappointed they had not been notified of this directly by the Province. They also questioned the name change of the site from Tafelberg to “353 on Main”.
Buhle Booi, head of political organising and campaigns at Ndifuna Ukwazi, said they would be engaging with the public participation process.
“It is of course very frustrating that these legal processes take time. We are hoping that the SCA will come back with the ruling soon. We were hoping that it would have been delivered by now.
“It is important to us because of spatial justice. There are domestic workers and security guards who work in Sea Point that have no place to call a home,” said Booi.
Justice Molemela wrote: “Civil society’s concern is perfectly understandable and justified. This is because the Judiciary has, in terms of the published Norms and Standards, committed itself to the effective, efficient and expeditious adjudication and resolution of all disputes. All the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal are cognisant of this obligation, and therefore strive to abide by these Norms and Standards. Unfortunately, exceptional circumstances sometimes result in a few reserved judgments not being delivered within the specified times due to a variety of reasons, including the complexity of the case, the size of the record or unforeseen circumstances that affect the panel of Judges who adjudicate the case.”
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General Broomdog
Fun South African Fact: The world’s second-largest brewing company is in South Africa.
Midnight Rambler
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”