Revisiting the role of the judiciary in enforcing the state's duty to provide access to the minimum core content of socio-economic rights in South Africa and Kenya

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v7/i2a3
• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Pages: 60-89
• Author: Mavedzenge, A.
• Citation: (2020) 7(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 60
• Date: 01 April 2021

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v7/i2a3 60

REVISITING THE ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY IN

ENFORCING THE STATE’S DUTY TO PROVIDE

ACCESS TO THE MINIMUM CORE CONTENT

OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN SOUTH

AFRICA AND KENYA

Justice Alfred Mavedzenge*

Abstract

Although the realisation of the full scope of each socio-economic right is meant to

be achieved progressively, Kenya and South Africa have an international obligation

to immediately provide vulnerable persons with access to the minimum core of

each of these rights. As revealed (again) by the COVID-19 pandemic, the two

states are in violation of this obligation as millions of people in both countries are

living in abject poverty, without access to the bare necessities. Attempts to enforce

the government’s minimum core obligations have failed at least three times in

South Africa, and the Court of Appeal in Kenya has hesitated to enforce these

obligations. Relying on the doctrinal review of jurisprudence from both countries

and international law, this article proposes that, in order to enforce the minimum

core obligations without violating the separation of powers doctrine, the judiciary

must be perceived to have a primary role and a secondary role. The primary role

of the court must be to enforce meaningful engagement between the state and the

rights bearers in determining the quantitative aspects of the minimum core content

of each right. Once the state has developed this core content, the court can review its

reasonableness by measuring it against the qualitative minimum standards imposed

by the right. In circumstances of urgent need, where the state has failed to develop

a reasonable quantitative minimum core content and rights bearers are in danger of

suffering irreparable harm, the court should invoke its secondary role which entails

setting the quantitative minimum core content to be provided by the state as a

temporary measure.

Keywords: COVID-19; minimum core content; socio-economic rights;

Constitution of Kenya; Constitution of South Africa; right to housing;

meaningful engagement

Résumé

Bien que la réalisation de toute l’étendue de chaque droit socio-économique soit

censée être réalisée progressivement, le Kenya et l’Afrique du Sud ont l’obligation

internationale de fournir immédiatement aux personnes vulnérables l’accès au

* Justice Alfred Mavedzenge is a Research Fellow at the Democratic Governance and Rights

Unit of the University of Cape Town, and a Legal Advisor at the International Commission of

Jurists. Email: justicemavedzenge@gmail.com.

(2020) 7(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 60

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

REVISITING THE ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY IN ENFORCING THE STATE’S

DUTY TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE MINIMUM CORE CONTENT OF SOCIO-

ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND KENYA 61

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v7/i2a3

minimum de chacun de ces droits. Comme l’a révélé (à nouveau) la pandémie

COVID-19, les deux États sont en violation de cette obligation car des millions de

personnes dans les deux pays vivent dans une pauvreté abjecte, sans aucun accès au

strict minimum. Les tentatives visant à faire respecter les obligations fondamentales

minimales du gouvernement ont échoué au moins trois fois en Afrique du Sud, et

la Cour d’appel du Kenya a manifesté son hésitation à faire respecter ces mêmes

obligations. S’appuyant sur l’examen doctrinal de la jurisprudence des deux pays

et du droit international, cet article propose que, pour faire respecter l’obligation

fondamentale minimale sans violer la doctrine de la séparation des pouvoirs, le

pouvoir judiciaire doit être perçu comme ayant un rôle primaire et secondaire.

Le rôle primaire des cours et tribunaux devrait être de garantir un engagement

significatif entre l’État et les détenteurs de droits dans la détermination des aspects

quantitatifs du contenu essentiel minimal de chaque droit. Une fois que l’État

a élaboré ce contenu minimum, les cours et tribunaux peuvent en examiner le

caractère raisonnable en le mesurant par rapport aux normes minimales qualitatives

imposées par le droit. En cas de besoin urgent, lorsque l’État n’a pas réussi à

élaborer un contenu essentiel minimal quantitatif raisonnable et que les titulaires

de droits risquent de subir un préjudice irréparable, les cours et tribunaux devraient

invoquer leur rôle secondaire qui consiste à fixer le contenu essentiel minimal

quantitatif à fournir par un État comme mesure temporaire.

Mots clés: COVID-19; Contenu essentiel minimum; Droits socio-

économiques; Constitution du Kenya; Constitution de l’Afrique du Sud;

Droit au logement; Engagement significatif

Introduction

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forces us to reconsider and

reflect (again) on how best socio-economic rights can be implemented,

especially in Africa. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the

World Health Organisation (WHO) issued guidelines calling upon people

to maintain social distance from each other and practise sanitary hygiene.

Several governments introduced lockdown measures which required

people to remain confined to their homes, as governments implemented

measures to slow down the spread of COVID-19. These measures were

based on the assumption that everyone enjoys access to socio-economic

rights such as adequate housing, where they can confine themselves with

adequate sanitation to practise sanitary hygiene. Yet, 1.6 billion people

in the world live without access to adequate housing.1 In South Africa,

the Cape Town Project Centre estimates that there are 200 000 homeless

1 Kuo, G. ‘Yet another emerging global cr isis: Homelessness’ Millennium Alliance for Humanity

and the Biosphere (2019) available at https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/yet-another-emerging-

global-crisis-homelessness/ [Accessed on 29 May 2020].

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd