More than five years after the Constitutional Court ordered that the residents of Ekuthuleni Shelter be provided with alternative accommodation by the City of Johannesburg, residents have again approached the court. A Business Day report says this time they are challenging the constitutionality of the conditions imposed on them in the alternative accommodation allocated to them.

These include daytime lock-out rules, gender segregation and a lack of personal space. The city has imposed these rules since they moved in. Although the city suggested to the Constitutional Court that these rules did not represent a far-reaching policy choice, there is reason to doubt this. The city has sought to freeze its potential obligation to provide alternative accommodation to 3 000 residents because it intends to apply these rules if they are found to be constitutional.

The report says the Constitutional Court’s decision in the challenge by the residents of Ekuthuleni Shelter will have far-reaching consequences for all the residents of the inner city who currently find themselves in need of alternative accommodation.

If the City of Johannesburg is successful, the conditions imposed on the residents of Ekuthuleni will probably be imposed on many other residents in the inner city who have been forced out of their homes.

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