Page 17 - Litigating Land and Housing in South Africa: Lessons and Reflections

of community members who had been lobbying the the municipality for several years to address the the illegal dump sites in in their neighbourhood and supply them with with proper waste collection services The meetings with with the the the community always took place in the the home of of one of of the the committee The school governing bodies participated in in the case as their respective schools were severely affected by illegal dumping sites They were concerned for the health and safety of the learners who were playing on the the dump sites near the the schools The LRC have often acted on behalf of of school governing bodies in in education matters as they are legally responsible for the governance of of public schools The LRC’s history of of working with schools in in the the area meant there was an an 2 2 2 2 4 Strategy successes and failures
2 2 2 2 4 1 Importance of proper research members which made it it easier for the community to attend easy rapport with the the the schools and they trusted the the the LRC to represent them in the the the litigation As with the the the sewage case it was necessary to convey the scale and scope of the problem and to include applicants from a a a a cross sec- tion tion of the community Relationships with people like the dynamic Apollo Phillips were helpful as as he he he was able to to introduce the LRC to to communities across Makhanda that were facing the same problems of illegal dumping and poor refuse collection Secondly we needed to conduct proper research on on on the steps taken by the the municipality to address the the issue over the the years We started by looking into the the annual reports of of the municipality minutes of of council meetings and the the commissioned expert reports that the the municipality had obtained about the infrastructure shortcomings in in in in town This revealed that the municipality and indeed the national and provincial government had been aware of the service delivery crisis in in Makhanda since at least 2010 but that very few of the proposed interventions had ever been implemented This information was in- valuable in in in drafting our remedy as it already contained
useful suggestions on on on how the sanitation and refuse problems could be addressed There is often a a tendency to to rush to to court before taking the time to investigate and research a a a a a a case Details emerge over time that may influence the the strategy or the the remedy As an an attorney you also have the advantage of building a a a relationship with your clients and monitoring the the the impact of the the the problem on their lives This is is impor- tant when drafting court papers as your understanding of of the the the issues enhances the the the quality of of the the the papers before the court Both cases took more than a a a a a a a a a a a year before litigation was launched The clients approached our offices in late 2018 and we only launched launched the the sanitation litigation litigation in in November 2019 while the the refuse litigation litigation was launched launched in in July 2020 There were a a a a a a a few reasons for this delay Firstly we we we wanted to to make sure that we we we properly monitored the situation on on ground-level and and obtain as as much information and and evidence as as we could This meant that over a a a a a a a a a a a period of a a a a a a a a a a a year we made routine visits to to to to the the the clients’ homes to to to to monitor the the the sewage spills and the the the refuse sites We wanted to to to to be able to to to present photographic evidence of of the the the situation over an extended period to to to show the the the systemic failures
of of the the the municipality LITIGATING LAND AND AND AND HOUSING IN IN IN SOUTH AFRICA  LESSONS AND AND AND REFLECTIONS
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