STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL
11 JUNE 2020
HIGH COURT INTERDICT: DA’S CITY OF CAPE TOWN LEADERSHIP HAVE LOST THEIR WAY
MAYOR AND MAYCO SHOULD FACE PERSONAL PUNITIVE LEGAL COSTS ORDER
It is shocking that the City of Cape Town’s leadership brought a high court application to interdict the South African Human Rights Commission from conducting its constitutional mandate in respect of the Strandfontein Camp for homeless.
The mandate of the South African Human Rights Commission, as contained in Section 184 of the Constitution, is to:
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a) promote respect for human rights and a culture of human rights;
b) promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights; and
c) monitor and assess the observance of human rights in the Republic.
The Strandfontein Camp was a predictable, and massive, disaster from conception to implementation.
Many of us warned that the approach of the City, to providing support and housing to homeless people in response to the lockdown, was inhumane and would fail.
Those of us who visited the camp observed that the rights, safety and health of those who were interned there were completely disregarded.
Despite these observations our Provincial Social Development Department failed in its duty to intervene and to exercise its social development mandate.
It fell to opposition members of this house, civic organisations, Doctors without borders and the Human Rights Commission to champion the rights and safety interests of those dumped in Strandfontein.
This week we learned that the City had brought a high court application to prevent the Human Rights Commission and others from monitoring the camp for human rights violations.
It is unbelievable how far the City’s leadership has strayed from rationality, legality and decency.
The DA is in the courts ostensibly to champion the protection of our constitutional rights in the face of lockdown regulations.
Yet it at the same time its flagship municipal government is trampling on the rights of the most vulnerable amongst us and pursuing draconian and wasteful efforts to avoid scrutiny and accountability.
The courts have demonstrated, for example through legal costs awards against the Public Protector, that they will impose personal and punitive costs awards against reckless and vexatious litigants.
There is no reason why the people of Cape Town should pay for this litigation.
The respondents should pursue a personal and punitive legal costs order against the Mayor and his Mayco.