Constitutional Court says emergency shelter rules are unconstitutional

On December 1, the Constitutional Court handed down a judgment in the Dladla v City of Johannesburg case. It said the city had breached the rights of 11 people to whom it had provided temporary accommodation. The city provided former residents of Saratoga Avenue accommodation at the Ekuthuleni Shelter in Johannesburg’s inner city in 2012. When they got to the shelter, residents were subjected to the its rules, locking them out during the day and separating men and women into different dormitories. This meant heterosexual couples were separated and parents with children of the opposite sex were separated. Residents approached the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA (Seri), which took up their case and asked the Court to declare the shelter rules invalid because the rules negatively affect the dignity of residents. In the judgment, the Court found that the rules separating the residents’ families and locking them out during the day were in breach of the Constitution. The Dladla judg...