A Closer Look at the Right to Have Access to Adequate Housing for Inhabitants of Informal Settlements Post Grootboom

Abstract

In South Africa informal settlement dwellers are faced with a myriad of socio-economic problems, which relate, amongst others, to living standards, access to basic services, and suitable housing. Notwithstanding these problems, the Constitution affords everyone the right to have access to adequate housing. It also makes it obligatory for the state ‘to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right’. In light of the above, this article examines the constitutional obligation on the state to provide informal settlement dwellers the right of access to adequate housing. It explores some of the landmark cases that have shaped the jurisprudence of the right to have access to adequate housing in South Africa post the ground breaking Constitutional Court’s Grootboom decision.