Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the contribution of slums to the development of the South African jurisprudence on the right to housing and beyond with the birth of the notion of "meaningful engagement". The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa was characterised by the adoption of a constitution hailed as transformative because of its objectives seeking to turn the society into an equalitarian. Yet although the constitution provides for human rights including the right to housing, many south African still do not have a roof over their heads. As a result, they erect informal settlements when possible or occupy abandoned buildings to survive. This led to the proliferation of slums in the country. In the process, slum dwellers often erect their shacks illegally on private properties. Illegal occupiers of these spaces often face eviction or threat of eviction by the property owners of the states. It is on this backdrop that in the course of an eviction process in 2007, the Constitutional Court issued an interim order that directed the parties "to engage with each other meaningfully" and to report back to the Court on the results of the engagement between them. This was the birth of the concept of "meaningful engagement" which does not allow the eviction of slum dwellers without engaging with them or providing alternative accommodations. This concept grew beyond the right to housing to become an essential part of the South African jurisprudence.

The aim of this paper is to unveil the role of slums in developing the South African jurisprudence with the notion of meaningful engagement. To this, it will examine the seminal case known as Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road, Berea Township and 197 Main Street Johannesburg v City of Johannesburg (2008 3 SA 208 (CC). It will use a qualitative research method to make it case and demonstrate that slums dwellers were instrumental in development of the concept of "meaningful engagement" which has now cascaded down to various parts of the south African jurisprudence. Ultimately, the paper argues that slum dwellers are well part and parcel of the society and have a contribution to make as they help transform South African law of eviction and beyond.