Johannesburg High Court Judge Steven Kuny has reserved his judgment in a case which a group of shack dwellers has brought against the City of Ekurhuleni in an effort to be supplied with flushing toilets.
The group represents some 153 households in Langaville.
After more than a decade of using the same interim basic sanitation – in the form of portable chemical toilets – that the municipality was in 2011 ordered to provide them with, they’ve now approached the court.
They want the judge to declare the municipality to be in breach of its constitutional obligations.
The case was heard on Thursday.
In opposition to the application, the municipality argued the land on which the shack dwellers live was not zoned for residential use, and that it had no plans to rezone it accordingly.
It also argues that as a category C informal settlement, it only qualified for interim basic sanitation, and that there are thousands of others across the city – and the country – in the same position as this group.
Advocate Usha Dayanand-Jugroop – for the municipality – had this to say in court: “It’s a difficult case for the court to decide because of people living in a desperate situation but as I stated, the applicants’ circumstances are not unique, unfortunately in Ekhuruleni and across South Africa, and what it would amount to is discrimination or preferential treatment if their demand for improved sanitation is granted by the court.”
In addition, the municipality said there was a long-term plan to provide housing and sanitation for those who qualify for it through the John Dube Mega City Development Project.
Some shack dwellers don’t want to be relocated, but Dayanand-Jugroop said the municipality can’t be held hostage by that.
-EWN
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