Piloting a legal perspective on community protests and the pursuit of safe(r) cities in South Africa

• Author: Myrone C. Stoffels,Anél Du Plessis
• DOI: 10.25159/2522-6800/6188
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Pages: 1-26

Southern African Public Law

https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-6800/6188

https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL

ISSN 2522-6800 (Online)

Volume 34 | Number 2 | 2019 | #6188 | 26 pages

© Unisa Press 2019

Article

Piloting a Legal Perspective on Community Protests

and the Pursuit of Safe(r) Cities in South Africa

Myrone Stoffels

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5097-3113

Lecturer, North-West University

myrone.stoffels@nwu.ac.za

Anél du Plessis

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4395-4045

Professor of Law, North-West University

anel.duplessis@nwu.ac.za

Abstract

This article considers the right to protest and pilots an initial legal response to

the phenomenon of community protest against the global policy ideal of a safe

urban space, determined in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11 and 16.

First, there is a discussion about the global desire for safe(r) cities and the threats

to such safety. Second, the causes and effects of community protest and the

politics of urban space are considered. Third, there is a discussion of the City of

Cape Town’s safety profile and the occurrence of community protests as an

illustration of the conceptual frameworks in parts one and two. The authors

conclude with some observations on the notion of safe cities and communities

as embodied in SDGs 11 and 16, and reflect in brief on a future research agenda

from the perspective of law.

Keywords: Right to protest; community protest; Sustainable Development Goals

2

Introduction*

Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) determines that by 2030 cities must be

safe, sustainable, inclusive and resilient. While much remains to be explored about the

nature of urban safety, sustainability, inclusivity and resilience,

1

this article is devoted

to the notion of safe(r) cities. Assuming that ‘safe’ in this sense denotes a secure

environment that provides a welcoming atmosphere and that is free of controllable

threats to human security, this focus also encapsulates the content of SDG 16, which

seeks in part to promote peaceful and inclusive communities.

2

Such communities

include local communities in urban settings.

3

Any understanding of a safer city in a

specific context needs first of all to establish in more concrete terms what an unsafe city

would look like. As suggested by Milliken, many of the threats that could be

encountered in an unsafe city could relate to the social–political and socio-economic

complexities of urbanisation and could occur, for example, when urban sprawl becomes

‘ubiquitous and haphazard’ or when service delivery, such as the provision of water and

sanitation, fails.

4

Terrorism and war may typically delineate the safety of an occupied

city.

5

Other risks to city safety include those posed by natural disasters, crime and

violence, infrastructure collapse and public health events. A specific yet somewhat

veiled threat is protest action that turns violent.

6

In this context, ‘protest action’ or

* This work is based on research con ducted with the financial support of the National Research

Foundation of South Africa (Grant No 115581) towards the South African Research Chair in Cities,

Law and Environmental Sustainability. All views and errors are the authors’ own. The authors wish to

thank Professors Willemien du Plessis and Oliver Fuo and student researchers in the South African

Research Chair on Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability for their comments on earlier drafts

of this article.

1

For an analysis of SDG 11, see Helmut Aust and Anél du Plessis, ‘Good Urban Governance as a Global

Aspiration: On the Potential and Limits of Sustainable Development Goal 11’, in Duncan French and

Louis J Kotzé (eds), Sustainable Development Goals: Law, Theory and Implementation (Edward Elgar

2018) 201–221; and further, Helmut Aust and Anél du Plessis (eds), The Globalisation of Urban

Governance: Legal Perspectives on Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Routledge 2019).

2

SDG 1 6 is directed at the promotion, globally, of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable

development, the provision of access to justice for all and the building of effective, accountable and

inclusive institutions at all levels.

3

Urban safety and security in this context is described by Jennifer Milliken, ‘Urban Safety and Security:

Lessons from the Last Two Decades and Emergent Issues, Synthesis Report of th e Conference

Reviewing the State o f Safety in World Cities: Safer Cities +20, Geneva, 6–8 July 2016’ 1

<https://www.gpplatform.ch/sites/default/files/PP%2022%20-

%20Urban%20safety%20and%20security_0.pdf> accessed 14 March 2019.

4

Simon Bekker and Göran Therborn, Power and Powerlessness: Capital Cities in Africa (HSRC Press

2012) 3; Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All (2016) 3.

5

Edward Glaeser and Jesse Shapiro, ‘Cities and Warfare: The Impact of Terrorism on Urban Form’

(2002) 51(2) Journal of Urban Economics 205–208.

6

See in this regard, Milliken (n 3).