THE Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that about 20000 residents in the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town must be evicted, but none should be moved until alternative accommodation was provided.

Five different judgments were prepared which all supported the same order and a judgment was prepared to outline the reasons on which all the judges agreed.

Former housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu applied in September 2007 for an eviction order to relocate 4386 households in Joe Slovo, 10km east of Cape Town, to Delft, an area 15km away from the city, as she wanted to develop better housing than the informal houses they occupied.

In March last year, the Western Cape High Court ordered that the occupiers vacate the area and move to Delft. The residents appealed against the judgment, arguing that they were not unlawful occupiers. The Constitutional Court said by the time the eviction proceedings were launched, the residents were unlawful occupiers within the meaning of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

The Constitutional Court's eviction order differed from the high court order. Its order required the government and the developers to ensure that 70% of the homes to be built on the site of the settlement were allocated to existing residents. Its order specified the quality of the temporary accommodation and required continuing engagement between the residents and the government about the relocation.

The court said temporary residential units had to be made available to each household moved. Each unit must be at least 24m² , be individually numbered for identification, have walls built of a substance called Nutec and have a galvanised iron roof, be supplied with electricity through a pre-paid meter and be reasonably close to a communal ablution facility.

Judge Zac Yacoob said the residents were being evicted and relocated in order to facilitate housing development. "In the circumstances their eviction constitutes a measure to ensure the progressive realisation of the right to housing."

Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said no matter how commendable the government's intentions about the use of the land , without the solid promise of alternative housing, evictions might turn out to be a method of brutal state control and far from the progressive realisation of the socioeconomic rights the constitution guaranteed.

The director-general of the Department of Human Settlements, Itumeleng Kotsoane, welcomed the judgment, saying it allowed the government to plan better and to fast-track the building of integrated human settlements across the country. "As government, we must ensure that clinics and creches are there, children must go to school and disruptions to people's lives are minimised."

 ERNEST MABUZA