Abstract
In a rapidly urbanising society and against a background of rural underdevelopment, cities are increasingly the locations for access to basic socio-economic amenities and essential services. Access to the city and everything that it offers therefore impacts profoundly on the manner and extent to which poor and marginalised persons access the objects of their constitutionally ensconced socio-economic rights. Conversely, the content of the ‘right to the city’ is impacted by legal understandings of the ambit, scope and enforceability of socio-economic rights. Either way, the South African Constitution’s entrenchment of rights to access water, housing, health care services and education, alongside its guarantee of a substantive right to equality, mean that urban design, policy making and regeneration processes have become increasingly legalized and will increasingly be tested for constitutional compliance, especially in instances where they have the effect of excluding poor and marginalised persons from the city. This article begins to unpack the interrelationship between constitutional rights and the right to the city, focusing specifically on the impact of rights-based litigation and judgements on urban policy making, design and regeneration in South Africa.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albertyn, C. (2007). Substantive equality and transformation in South Africa. South African Journal on Human Rights, 23, 253–277.
Albertyn, C., & Goldblatt, B. (1998). Facing the challenge of transformation: difficulties in the development of an indigenous jurisprudence of equality. South African Journal on Human Rights, 14, 248–276.
Bilchitz, D. (2007). Poverty and fundamental rights: the justification and enforcement of socio-economic rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). (2005). Any room for the poor? Forced evictions in Johannesburg, South Africa. Report available through www.cohre.org.
City of Johannesburg v. Rand Properties. (2007). Judgment by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, reported as 2007 (6) SA 417 (SCA).
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. (1996). South African Parliament, Act 108 of 1996.
Currie, I. (1999). Judicious avoidance. South African Journal on Human Rights, 15, 138–165.
Democratic Alliance v. Masondo. (2003). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2003 (2) SA 413 (CC).
Dirsuweit, T. (2002). Johannesburg: fearful City? Urban Forum, 13(3), 3–19.
Dirsuweit, T. (2006). Security, citizenship and governance: an introduction. Urban Forum, 17(4), 295–300.
Dugard, J. (2008). Rights, regulation and resistance: the Phiri water campaign. South African Journal on Human Rights, 24, 593–611.
Enslin, P. (2003). Citizenship education in post-Apartheid South Africa. Cambridge Journal of Education, 33, 73–83.
Fernandes, E. (2007). Constructing the ‘right to the city’ in Brazil. Social & Legal Studies, 16(2), 201–219.
Frug, J. (1996). The geography of community. Stanford Law Review, 48(5), 1047–1108.
Gibson, J. L., & Caldeira, G. A. (2003). Defenders of democracy? Legitimacy, popular acceptance, and the South African Constitutional Court. Journal of Politics, 65(1), 1–30.
Government of the RSA v. Grootboom. (2001). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC).
Hammett, D. (2008). The challenge of a perception of ‘un-entitlement’ to citizenship in post-Apartheid South Africa. Political Geography, 27, 652–668.
Harvey, D. (2008). The right to the city. New Left Review, 53, 23–40.
Huchzermeyer, M. (2009). Does recent litigation bring us any closer to a right to the city? - paper delivered at workshop on ‘Intellectuals, ideology, protests and civil society’ held at the University of Johannesburg on 30 October 2009 - available through www.abahlali.org.
Jacobs, J. (1961; 3rd edn 1993). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: The Modern Library
Joseph v. City of Johannesburg. (2010). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2010 (3) BCLR 212 (CC).
Kirby, A. (2008). The production of private space and its implications for urban social relations. Political Geography, 27, 74–95.
Klare, K. E. (1998). Legal culture and transformative constitutionalism. South African Journal on Human Rights, 14, 146–188.
Layard, A. (2010). Shopping in the public realm: a law of place. Journal of Law and Society, 37(3), 412–441.
Le Roux, W. (2006). Planning law, crime control and the spatial dynamics of post-apartheid street democracy. SA Public Law, 21, 25–50.
Lefebvre, H. (1996). In E. Kofman & E. Lebas (Eds.), Writings on cities. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lemanski, C. (2004). A new apartheid? The spatial implications of fear of crime in Cape Town, South Africa. Environment and Urbanization, 16, 101–111.
Lemanski, C. (2006). Residential responses to fear (of crime plus) in two Cape Town suburbs: implications for the post-apartheid city. Journal of International Development, 18, 787–802.
Lemanski, C., Landman, K., & Durington, M. (2008). Divergent and similar experiences of ‘gating’ in South Africa: Johannesburg, Durban and cape Town’. Urban Forum, 19, 133–158.
Liebenberg, S. (2006). Needs, rights and transformation: adjudicating social rights. Stellenbosch Law Review, 17, 5–36.
Liebenberg, S. (2010). Socio-economic rights: adjudication under a transformative constitution. Cape Town: Juta & Co.
Liebenberg, S., & Goldblatt, B. (2007). The interrelationship between equality and socio-economic rights under South Africa’s transformative Constitution. South African Journal on Human Rights, 23, 335–361.
Marcuse, P. (2009). From critical urban theory to the right to the city. City, 13(2–3), 185–197.
Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg. (2010). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2010 (3) BCLR 239 (CC).
Miraftab, F. (2007). Governing post apartheid spatiality: implementing city improvement districts in Cape Town. Antipode, 39(4), 602–626.
Mitchell, D. (1997). The annihilation of space by law: the roots and implications of anti-homeless laws in the United States. Antipode, 29(3), 303–335.
Mitchell, D. (2003). The right to the city. New York: Guilford Press.
Mkontwana v. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. (2005). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2005 (1) SA 530 (CC).
Murray, M. J. (2008). Taming the disorderly city: the spatial landscape of Johannesburg after Apartheid. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Narsiah, S. (2011). Urban pulse—the struggle for water, life, and dignity in South African cities: the case of Johannesburg. Urban Geography, 32, 149–155.
Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road, Berea Township v. City of Johannesburg. (2008). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2008 (5) BCLR 475 (CC).
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation. (1986). Judgment by the Supreme Court of India, reported as 1986 A.I.R. 180.
Parnell, S., & Pieterse, E. (2010). The ‘right to the city’: institutional imperatives of a developmental state. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(1), 146–162.
Pieterse, M. (2005). What do we mean when we talk about transformative constitutionalism? SA Public Law, 20, 155–166.
Pieterse, M. (2006). Resuscitating socio-economic rights: constitutional entitlements to health care services. South African Journal on Human Rights, 22, 473–502.
Pindell, N. (2006). Finding a right to the city. Exploring property and community in Brazil and in the United States. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 39, 435–479.
Port Elizabeth Municipality v. Various Occupiers. (2004). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2005 (1) SA 217 (CC).
Pretoria City Council v. Walker. (1998). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 1998 (2) SA 363 (CC).
Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act. (1998). South African Parliament, Act19 of 1998.
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. (2000). South African Parliament, Act 4 of 2000.
Purcell, M. (2002). Excavating Lefebvre: the right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant. GeoJournal, 58, 99–108.
Rail Commuters Action Group v. Transnet t/a Metrorail. (2005). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2005 (2) SA 359 (CC).
Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v. Thubelisha Homes. (2009). Judgment by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, reported as 2009 (9) BCLR 847 (CC).
Roux, T. (2009). Principle and pragmatism on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 7(1), 106–138.
Simone, A. (2005). The right to the city. Interventions, 7(3), 321–325.
Sinwell, L. (2010). The Wynberg concerned residents’ disempowering court victory. Urban Forum, 21, 153–169.
South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). (2005). Report on the issue of road closures, security booms and related matters. Johannesburg: SAHRC.
Staeheli, L. A., & Thompson, A. (1997). Citizenship, community, and struggles for public space. Professional Geographer, 4991), 28–38.
Staeheli, L. A., Mitchell, D., & Gibson, K. (2002). Conflicting rights to the city in New York’s community gardens. GeoJournal, 58, 197–205.
Veary, J. (2010). Hidden spaces and urban health: exploring the tactics of rural migrants navigating the city of gold. Urban Forum, 21, 37–53.
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront v. Police Commissioner, Western Cape. (2004). Judgment by the Cape provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa, reported as 2004 (4) SA 444 (C).
Von Schnitzler, A. (2008). Citizenship prepaid: water, calculability and techno-politics in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 34(4), 899–917.
Waldron, J. (1991). Homelessness and the issue of freedom. UCLA Law Review, 39, 295–324.
Weinstein, L., & Ren, X. (2009). The changing right to the city: urban renewal and housing rights in globalizing Shanghai and Mumbai. City & Community, 8(4), 407–432.
Wilson, S. (2009). Breaking the tie: evictions from private land, homelessness and a new normality. South African Law Journal, 129, 270–290.
Woolman, S. (2007). The amazing, vanishing Bill of Rights. South African Law Journal, 127, 762–794.
World Charter on the Right to the City (2005). Available at: <http://www.globalgovernancewatch.org/resources/world-charter-on-the-right-to-the-city>.
Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Coggin, T., Pieterse, M. Rights and the City: An Exploration of the Interaction Between Socio-economic Rights and the City. Urban Forum 23, 257–278 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9135-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9135-8