South Africa: Court asked for order on housing provision

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa is seeking an order against the executive mayor of eThekwini (Durban), together with two other senior officials in their personal capacities, to take all the steps necessary to implement a court order requiring housing to be provided to 37 occupants of the Richmond Farm Transit Camp in KwaMashu. The occupiers were evicted from the Siyanda informal settlement in March 2009 in order to allow the construction of a road. One of the conditions of the eviction order was that the occupiers would be provided with permanent housing within a year. The deadline for doing so expired almost two years ago and nothing has been done to comply with the order. This case, if argued, will be important because it will establish whether individual office bearers can be held personally responsible for the state’s failure to perform on specific obligations.