Social Justice Coalition & 2 others v Minister of Police and 4 others: Right to City as a Mitigating Concept to Harms on Public Safety

Abstract

The South African constitution in section 9(3) prohibits unfair discrimination against anyone. This paper aims to unpack a judgement handed down by the Constitutional Court of South Africa on 19 July 2022 relating to the unfair allocation of policing resources in South Africa, thus resulting in unfair discrimination. The case discussed is the case of Social Justice Coalition and 2 others v Minister of Police and 4 others. Systematic discrimination has seen less allocation of police resources amongst poorer communities such as Khayelitsha in Cape Town. The paper further aims to see how local government can play a meaningful role in promoting public safety in its law and policy, thus promoting the ‘right to city’ and adhering to United Nations normative approaches on Urban crime and safety. This may mitigate systematic discrimination that historically disadvantaged areas have in policing resources across South Africa. Generally, South Africa is ranked one of the most violent societies. Murder, robbery, rape, femicide, and domestic violence occur at alarming levels. Cities such as Cape Town rank amongst the twenty most violent cities in the world, with the likes of some Latin and Central American cities, which are countries that are not in any form of civil war or civil unrest. It is a general norm that some areas have developed a reputation of being high risk to public safety because of various violent crimes such as gun shooting, stabbing, and rape. Certain areas in metropolitan cities, such as Khayelitsha Cape Town, are known to have high unreported incidents of violent crimes. It is worth pointing out that the application brought before the courts focuses on the lack of policing resources in Cape Town. This judgement also fits into the reality of the situation across South African townships under-resourced with policing resources to deal with violent crime and other crime. The paper will be structured in a way that first gives a background of the case, secondly a critical analysis of the case through the concept of ‘right to city’ and thirdly, submissions and a conclusion.