A ground-breaking case in which activist groups seek a declaration that the allocation of police resources in the Western Cape unfairly discriminates against black and poor people goes to the Equality Court in Cape Town today. The case was brought by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and Equal Education (EE) against the Minister of Police, the National and Provincial Police Commissioners and the Western Cape MEC for Community Safety in March 2016.

The Women’s Legal Centre has joined as a friend of the Court, notes a GroundUp report. In their papers, SJC and EE argue that existing mechanisms to allocate police resources – which they term ‘a relic of apartheid’ – have provided more police officers for wealthier white populations and fewer resources for poor, black populations that experience more crime.

Under section 9(3) of the Constitution, government is not allowed to discriminate unfairly against anyone on the grounds of race, gender, sex and religion. Any discrimination based on these grounds is assumed to be unfair unless the government can demonstrate that the discrimination is fair.

This unfair discrimination is prohibited in the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000. The SJC and EE application under the Act was initially set to be heard in August but was delayed.

GroundUp says it is now up to the courts to determine whether SAPS has done enough to improve policing resource allocation in poor areas and, if not, what should be done.

Full GroundUp report