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SERI has contributed to an important new SCA decision that establishes an appropriate set of procedures and standards in eviction proceedings which might lead to homelessness.

On 14 September 2012, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down judgment in City of Johannesburg v Changing Tides, in which it considered the duties of courts and municipalities in eviction proceedings which might lead to homelessness. The case concerned over 100 people living in unsafe conditions in an abandoned commercial building called Tikwelo House in inner city Johannesburg. The occupiers were represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), and SERI was admitted as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the proceedings.

Judge Malcolm Wallis in the SCA, writing for a unanimous court, accepted all of SERI's core submissions relating to the duties of courts and municipalities in eviction proceedings. These include the following -

1. A court must call for further evidence of occupiers' needs in circumstances where it seems that an eviction might lead to homelessness, even where an application is unopposed.

2. A municipality is under a duty to file a detailed report which responds to the specific needs of the occupiers concerned and sets out when it will be able to provide accommodation where required, rather than simply setting out bland statistics relating to its housing programmes in general.

3. In disputed cases, it is for a court, rather than a municipality, to decide whether and which occupiers should be provided with alternative accommodation, once it has identified all the relevant circumstances. This is in line with section 26(3) of the Constitution.

The SCA sent the application for eviction back to the High Court, in order for the lower court to deal with these issues. The SCA criticised the City of Johannesburg's registration and screening procedure for alternative accommodation – conducted through its Expanded Social Package (ESP) system - as overly bureaucratic and ill-suited to the practical realities of eviction proceedings.

Teboho Mosikili, an attorney at SERI, said "We are delighted with the SCA's judgment. It establishes an appropriate set of procedures and standards in eviction proceedings which, if now followed by the City of Johannesburg, will see large numbers of poor people given the accommodation they need when in desperate situations. SERI was very pleased to be able to assist the court in reaching the judgment it did.”

SERI was represented in court by Advocates Stuart Wilson and Irene de Vos. Read more on the case and the judgment here: http://bit.ly/SHEl9k <http://bit.ly/SHEl9k>