Towards a Right to the City?

This article illustrates the transformative potential of guaranteeing justiciable socio-economic rights in domestic law, by engaging with the judicial vindication, over nearly a quarter-century, of the right to housing in the South African Constitution. Initial assessments of housing rights litigation in the country suggested that, while the right provided temporary protection against eviction and could provide temporary relief in housing emergencies, it was of limited use in addressing spatial injustice and unequal access to affordable housing. But over time, judicial vindication of the right to housing has given poor and vulnerable communities a foothold in cities, which is productively being leveraged by social movements claiming a right to the city. Meanwhile, separate remedial frameworks around land rights and political participation appear to be slowly converging with the housing jurisprudence, in ways that hold significant potential for transformative change in South African cities.