Protection of a substantive right of access to adequate housing

Abstract

This research project focuses on protection of the right to have access to adequate housing. This study is motivated by the need to examine protection mechanisms in the South African Legal system for former employees of a mining company in the South of Johannesburg who occupied houses through a housing scheme provided to them. Their former employer has sold the property to a third party who has applied for an eviction order against these people on the ground that they are unlawful occupiers as they do not have permission from him to occupy the property. The second chapter discusses an overview of the existing legal system by analysing the policies of residential segregation and legislation developed post-democracy. The third chapter discusses the Constitutional Court’s contribution towards development of the legal system relating to protection of the right to have access to adequate housing. The fourth chapter focuses on the limitation of the law faced by the courts when adjudicating claims relating to the right to have access to adequate housing. In this study I hope to contribute to the development of the legal system relating to protection of the right to have access to adequate housing, particularly former mining company employees who have occupied houses for more than twenty years, taking into account that the houses were provided to them through an employment housing scheme.