The historic Tafelberg School site in Cape Town, a focal point for housing rights activism and the fight for social housing.
After nearly a decade of litigation, the Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark ruling in one of South Africa’s most significant land justice cases, finding that both the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town failed in their constitutional duty to address apartheid’s spatial legacy by providing affordable housing in well-located parts of the city.
In a unanimous judgment handed down on Thursday, the apex court declared the 2015 sale of the Tafelberg property in Sea Point unlawful, overturned the Supreme Court of Appeal’s 2024 ruling in favour of the province and the City, and ordered both spheres of government to report back to the High Court on concrete measures they will take to deliver affordable housing in Cape Town’s central business district and Sea Point.
The judgment, written by Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla, with Acting Deputy Chief Justice Madlanga and Justices Goosen, Kollapen, Majiedt, Opperman, Rogers, Theron and Tshiqi concurring, resolves two consolidated matters. The first was brought by Thozama Adonisi, the late Phumza Ntutela, Sharone Daniels, Selina La Hane, Reclaim the City and the Trustees of the Ndifuna Ukwazi Trust. The second was brought separately by the National Minister of Human Settlements. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) was admitted as amicus curiae in the first application.
