Editorial note from one of the organisers of the Conference entitled Land and Housing : Prospects and Challenges presented under the auspices of the Social Security Flagship, a community engagement initiative established by the College of Law, Unisa : editorial

• Author: Sue-Mari Viljoen
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC197708
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Pages: v-vi

Editorial note from one of the organisers of

the Conference entitled Land and Housing:

Prospects and Challenges presented under

the auspices of the Social Security Flagship, a

community engagement initiative established

by the College of Law, Unisa

Sue-Mari Viljoen

In Septemb er 2014, the Social Security Flagship – a community engagement

initiative established by the College of Law, University of South Africa (Unisa) –

hosted a national conference titled ‘Land and housing: Prospects and challenges’.

The overall purpose of the Conference, namely, to discuss a broad spectrum of

housing matters and determine how this area of law has contributed, on the one

hand, to the alleviation of poverty and, on the other hand, entrenched it, was

therefore in line with the aim of the Social Security Flagship, which is to analyse

the extension of social assistance coverage to the poor and vulnerable. T he

Constitutional Court has decided that the right to housing is essential to give

effect to human dignity, equality and freedom, the foundational values of our

society, since these values are denied those who have no shelter, food or

clothing. The section 26 right of access to adequate housing is indivisible from

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other rights, such as human dignity, since homelessness goes ‘to the core of a

person’s life and dignity’. Furthermore, according to the Bill of Rights, the

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deprivation of socio-economic rights, including the right to housing, ‘impedes the

development of a whole range of human capabilities, including the ability to fulfil

life plans and participate effectively in political, economic and social life’. The

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provision of housing is therefore an essential human right and key to the

eradication of poverty in South Africa.

Government of the Republic of South Africa v Grootboom 2001 1 SA 46 (CC) para 23.

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Sachs ‘Social and economic rights: Can they be made justiciable?’ (2000) 53 SMU LR 1381 at 1388.

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Liebenberg ‘The value of human dignity in interpreting socio-economic rights’ (2005) 21 SAJHR

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1 at 2.