Staff Reporter
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero and City Manager Floyd Brink must appear in court on Tuesday to explain why the city has not provided emergency housing for over 74 “vulnerable” families facing eviction.
The order, according to a statement issued by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), follows a 31 March high court order in the matter of Occupiers of Erf 74, Electron Township v K2012150042 & City of Johannesburg Municipality.
SERI is representing families from the Electrons informal settlement in Unigray.
It said the court ordered Morero and Brink to personally account for what the city has done, or is doing, to provide Temporary Emergency Accommodation, or TEA, and to state where the occupiers will be relocated and how.
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The 31 March order was granted after the city failed to comply with an order issued on 26 November 2025. In that order, it was told to provide TEA for the occupiers.
The families are also seeking to compel senior city officials to account for non-compliance with five earlier court orders.
“This pattern of defiance, particularly towards the law, poses a serious threat to our constitutional democracy, the City and its office bearers need to do better,” SERI litigation director Nkosinathi Sithole said.
This is not a new fight. In the landmark 2011 Blue Moonlight judgment, the constitutional court held that the city had a constitutional obligation to provide temporary accommodation to occupiers who would otherwise be rendered homeless. It rejected the city’s argument that it lacked the resources to do so.
That obligation has repeatedly resurfaced in later litigation. In a March 2025 damages ruling against Johannesburg, the Gauteng High Court found the city had failed for three years to comply with an earlier order to provide temporary emergency accommodation in another inner-city case.
The judge said it was only after the mayor, municipal manager and director of housing were facing contempt proceedings that the city provided accommodation in January 2016.
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The Electron matter lands in the wake of the Usindiso Commission, whose final report was formally released by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi in September 2025 after the Marshalltown fire that killed 77 people.
The commission found a severe shortage of affordable formal housing and said the city’s inability to provide enough TEA had trapped residents in unsafe buildings and stalled evictions.
In its final report, the commission stated: “It is unconscionable, almost 30 years after the Constitution was made law, that the quest for proper and affordable housing is growing without any sign of abating. The City is encouraged to re-examine the budget allocated for TEA as well as affordable social housing.”
SERI said Morero and Brink should use Tuesday’s appearance to present “clear, concrete, and implementable steps” to comply with the court order and provide TEA to the residents by 30 April.