Cape Town - The Constitutional Court has dismissed an appeal by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) over discrimination in the allocation of policing resources disparately impacting poor communities in the Western Cape.
The matter emanated from a ruling by the Equality Court in December 2018, which found and declared that the allocation of police human resources, and the system used by SAPS, unfairly discriminated against black and poor people based “on the grounds of race and poverty”.
The hearing on what relief should be granted to remedy the discrimination was postponed “to a date which shall be arranged with the parties”.
In April 2021, after numerous requests to convene the hearing to finalise the remedy went unanswered, the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) representing the SJC - approached the apex court, seeking leave to appeal against what it deemed to be the “Equality Court’s constructive refusal to grant a remedy”.
The court ultimately found that leave to appeal could not be granted because there was no order from the Equality Court to appeal.
Constitutional Court Judge Narandra Jody Kollapen ruled: “The Constitution does not give this Court the power to make the declaratory order sought so as then to entertain an application for leave to appeal from that order. Nor is this Court competent to enforce the applicants’ rights of access to the Equality Court, when the applicants have not moved the Equality Court to do so. I appreciate that the applicants have, with much persistence, requested the Presiding Judge in the Equality Court to convene his Court. His failure to do so is to be deprecated. What is required is an application, brought urgently if there are grounds, to the Equality Court, setting out the infringement of the applicants’ rights and requiring the Presiding Judge to convene his Court.”
“In the result, leave to appeal must be refused for want of jurisdiction. In a case of this kind, no order for costs is warranted.”
The LRC said they would not be deterred by the outcome.
“According to the Constitutional Court, it has no competence to enforce our right of access to the courts until the Equality Court has declined to do so. The Constitutional Court's dismissal has by no means discouraged us. The recent surge in murders in Khayelitsha demonstrates the intersections between race, poverty and safety in South Africa broadly, but especially in informal settlements.
“Furthermore, the call for the construction of a permanent police station in Makhaza, Khayelitsha to increase safety service provision in the area, shows the necessity of vindicating the rights of poor and Black communities who continue to suffer from discriminatory allocation of police resources. This call follows recommendation 19 of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry which alongside other recommendations have been a beacon of hope for safety in poor and Black communities in townships like Khayelitsha,” the LRC said.
Cape Times