The remaining residents of Bromwell Street in Woodstock, Cape Town are staying put after the SCA reserved judgment in their eviction case against the city.

A Cape Argus report says it is not clear when the SCA will give its ruling. In an earlier High Court judgment, the city was compelled to provide alternative accommodation to evicted Bromwell Street residents, who lost their homes after the properties were bought by the Woodstock Hub.

In September last year, the Western Cape High Court ruled the city’s emergency housing programme and implementation unconstitutional, and ordered it to make available temporary housing to the 26 applicants in an area close to where they live.

The court gave the city 12 months to effect this.

The city said it was concerned that the High Court judgment sets an unsustainable precedent for the state to accommodate persons – whether in a public or private eviction – near the relevant unlawful occupation.

Furthermore, the city said the High Court judgment was in contradiction of a Constitutional Court precedent and comes despite paragraph 159 of the High Court judgment acknowledging it would be ‘an impossible burden’ on the state ‘to accommodate those who have been evicted, and who are going to be rendered homeless in virtually every suburb or area in which they live’.

In its court documents, the City argued that it had not acted unconstitutionally by not providing emergency housing to the occupiers, and similarly placed people in the inner city.

Full Cape Argus report