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Issued by: Inner City Resource Centre (ICRC), Inner City Federation (ICF), 1to1 Agency of Engagement, Planact and SERI.

No-one should have to live in derelict buildings which have been abandoned by their owners. The risks can be fatal, as the fire at 80 Albert Street showed. People live there because formal accommodation options are few and far between. They do so because of what access to a central location offers: job searching; informal, formal and irregular employment; savings on transportation costs from the peripheries of the City. They do so because they cannot afford accommodation developed by the private sector. They do so because the state subsidised social housing programme does not accommodate many people’s low levels of affordability. They do so because, even if they could afford formal accommodation options in the inner city, there are little to no vacancies.

Unfortunately, once an immediate crisis is over, it is often the case that the responsible authorities tend to recede and with them go any hopes of a sustainable solution to the systemic problems which underpin what is happening in Johannesburg’s inner city. This time it must be different.

What happened at Albert Street is a shocking symptom of the multi-faceted crisis in inner city Johannesburg. Unfortunately this fire is not the first but could well be a harbinger of the worst. A housing crisis first and foremost, political and commercial interests are also at play.

Regarding the housing aspect of the crisis, government already has the legal and policy mechanisms at its disposal. It need not develop new ones. However, the people living in abandoned buildings must be central to any interventions.

The primary tool at the disposal of the state is the Emergency Housing Programme, famously the outcome of the historic Grootboom judgment. The programme exists to accommodate victims of disasters like the people in Albert Street, to address living conditions that pose threats to the health of residents and for the provision of temporary accommodation for those who would be rendered homeless by an eviction. The programme is clear that victims of disasters and evictions together with those living in dangerous living conditions are eligible for the grant.

Were the City of Johannesburg to programmatically attend to the perilous conditions in the many derelict buildings, something which it should urgently do, it would need to take the rights of those who occupy them into account. Not doing so would result in thousands of homeless people sleeping rough on the streets. Unlawful evictions and warrantless raids have no place in a socially just, constitutionally compliant, developmental and humane state response.

We propose a three-pronged approach: Firstly, the immediate provision of services to all residents currently living in abandoned buildings, in order to address safety, health and basic needs on an interim basis. Secondly, the repair or upgrading of buildings to ensure that they do not pose a threat to the health, safety and lives of residents. Thirdly, if the threats cannot be addressed through in situ repair and incremental upgrading, then consensual or court-ordered resettlement or relocation to alternative accommodation should proceed.

The Emergency Housing Programme can fund all three interventions.

In order to support the access to services and the upgrading of the buildings, we are calling on voluntary professional services providers: engineers, planners, architects and other design professionals. If you are able to play a part, please provide us with your contact details using this link.

• Download the joint statement here.
• Download ICF and ICRC declaration on the Johannesburg inner city fire here.

On Friday, 8 September 2023, SERI made a submission to the National Minimum Wage Commission concerning possible adjustments to the national minimum wage for 2024. The commission will consider representations made to it before it publishes its annual report and recommendations on the annual review of the national minimum wage later in the year.

SERI’s submission focusses on discussing the impact of food insecurity and the implications for the minimum wage.

The impact of rising inflation has been felt by all groups in South Africa. In March 2023, South Africa’s food inflation reached a 14-year high at 14,4%.  The most notable food groups affected include vegetables for which prices have increased by 20,5%, grain products like maize, bread and cereals (20,3%), plant-based oils and fats (16%), milk and eggs (13,6%) and meat (10,6%). However, data from StatsSA shows that the poorest households suffered the highest inflation rate: from April 2022 to April 2023 the cost of living for the poorest households rose from around 6% to 11,3%, in comparison to an increase from around 5,5% to 7,8% for wealthier households. This is due to the sharp increases in food prices which impacted on poorer households the most because they spend approximately half of their annual budgets on food and non-alcoholic beverages, whereas for wealthier households, that proportion is 11%.

SERI submits that food insecurity is a critical lens through which the national minimum wage must be viewed. At the present quantum, the national minimum wage is insufficient to address the immediate needs of food security for the precarious worker. Sufficient quality and quantity of food needed to sustain a low-income household remains out of reach for those who earn the minimum wage. This forces precarious workers to employ coping strategies to stave of hunger, often compromising their physical health in the process.

Consequently, SERI’s key recommendation in this submission is that the adjustment to the minimum wage should take into consideration rising food prices as even those in low-income employment, such as domestic workers and farm workers, are struggling to meet their basic needs.

• Download the full submission here. 

Between 7 and 11 August 2023, SERI partnered with City University of London and the Bertha Foundation to host an advocacy workshop in Johannesburg. The week-long workshop was aimed at equipping candidate attorneys, attorneys, and junior advocates working in the public interest legal sector with practical experience in litigation and advocacy, with a particular focus on witness handling (leading evidence and cross-examining witnesses), trial skills and bail proceedings. 

The workshop began with two days of lectures, practical demonstrations and practice sessions focusing on key skills development. On the final day, the trainees were placed into teams and prepared overnight for a fully argued mock trial.

The workshop is a unique and critically important practical skills programme that supplies South African public interest legal practitioners with essential courtroom skills to enable them to provide better legal representation to the very poor and vulnerable people they work with across a wide range of different human rights work. In this way, SERI, the Bertha Foundation and City, University of London hope to contribute to the development and strengthening of well-trained, professional advocates working on public interest law.

This morning Johannesburg  residents  woke up to the devastating news that upwards of fifty lives have been lost in a fire in an inner city building owned by the municipality. SERI deeply regrets the rising loss of lives and we express our condolences to the families of the deceased residents. We wish  a speedy recovery to those in hospital. 

The building, known as Usindiso Shelter for Women and Children, was operating as a shelter for abused women and children until its neglect by the City, resulting in the building falling into disrepair and what the City refers to as its “hijacking”. 

Unfortunately, the fire at the Usindiso shelter is an  example of how the City deals with its shelters, which are occupied by  many of Johannesburg’s  poorest and most vulnerable residents. The conditions of the  shelters and transitional housing need to be urgently improved and people living in them need  access to basic services.

SERI has never litigated against the City of Johannesburg in relation to this building, our only involvement in the building related to the temporary placement of two of our clients by the City of Johannesburg following their displacement by a fire in September 2014. However, SERI has consistently tried to engage the City to improve conditions in its shelters, to no avail. To shift the blame to NGOs, as people speaking for the City are currently doing, speaks to the municipality’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the inner city housing crisis. Despite these tactics, and the City’s ongoing recalcitrance, SERI remains determined in defending the rights of vulnerable people who face illegal evictions in the City of Johannesburg at the hands of either the state or private owners with no alternative accommodation and in direct contravention of the rights entrenched in Constitution.

SERI urges the City to take this unfortunate event  as a wakeup call to proactively improve the conditions in the buildings it owns and manages, as well as other abandoned buildings in order to prevent future loss of life. 

   Contact details:  

• Khululiwe Bhengu, SERI senior attorney, khululiwe[at]seri-sa.org
• Edward Molopi, SERI senior advocacy officer, edward[at]seri-sa.org
• Zolile Shude, SERI candidate attorney, zolile[at]seri-sa.org

Download the statement here.