South African Informal Traders Forum and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others; South African National Traders Retail Association v City of Johannesburg and Others (CCT 173/13 ; CCT 174/14) [2014] ZACC 8; 2014 (6) BCLR 726 (CC); 2014 (4) SA 371 (CC) (4 April 2014)

80 Reportability
Constitutional Law

Brief Summary

Constitutional Law — Unlawful evictions — Interim relief — South African Informal Traders Forum and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others; South African National Traders Retail Association v City of Johannesburg and Others — Applicants, comprising informal traders, sought urgent interim relief against unlawful evictions by the City of Johannesburg's Metro Police, who forcibly removed them from their trading stalls despite their lawful trading permissions. The legal issue centered on the City’s failure to follow due process in evicting the traders and the balance of convenience favoring the applicants. The Constitutional Court upheld the appeal, interdicting the City from interfering with the traders' activities pending further determination and ordering costs against the City.

Comprehensive Summary

Summary of Judgment


Introduction


This judgment concerns two urgent applications for leave to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court, heard together, arising from the refusal by the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg (Monama J) to entertain an urgent application for interim relief. The High Court had struck the matter from the roll for lack of urgency, without providing written reasons, with the practical effect that the applicants would have had to re-enrol the matter in the ordinary course.


The principal parties were, on the one side, organisations representing informal traders in the Johannesburg inner city and numerous individual traders. In CCT 173/13, the applicants included the South African Informal Traders Forum and 1 210 individual traders. In CCT 174/13, the applicant was the South African National Traders Retail Association, representing 952 traders. On the other side were the City of Johannesburg and related municipal functionaries, including the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and senior municipal officials cited in their official capacities. The Central Johannesburg Partnership was also cited and made submissions, but did not oppose the relief in full.


The general subject matter of the dispute was the lawfulness and consequences of mass removals of informal traders from trading sites in the Johannesburg inner city during “Operation Clean Sweep” (also called the “Mayoral Clean Sweep”), and whether interim relief should be granted to restore lawful traders to their trading locations pending a review (Part B) in the High Court challenging certain City decisions connected to the removals and proposed relocation of traders.


The Constitutional Court granted leave to appeal, upheld the appeal, set aside the High Court order, and substituted it with an order interdicting the City respondents from interfering with the applicants’ trading at their prior locations, pending determination of Part B in the High Court. The Court’s reasons for that order are furnished in this judgment.


Material Facts


The material facts, as relied upon by the Constitutional Court, included that during October 2013, officers of the City’s Metro Police forcibly removed informal traders from their stalls and confiscated their goods. The traders concerned in these proceedings were those listed in annexures to the applications. It was not suggested by the City that these applicant traders were trading illegally. On the contrary, it was accepted that the City had granted them written permission to trade in the inner city and that many had traded in the relevant locations for a lengthy period, in some cases for up to twenty years.


The removals occurred as part of an initiative named by the City as “Operation Clean Sweep”, said by the City to be directed at addressing alleged disorderliness, criminality, and obstruction associated with trading areas. The Court treated these asserted objectives as not the issue before it, because (on the City’s own concession and on the undisputed facts) the City had pursued its aims in a manner that disregarded the rights of lawful traders. A salient feature relied upon was that the City did not distinguish between lawful traders and others when conducting the removals, even though the present applicants were not alleged to have been trading unlawfully.


After the removals, the applicants engaged the City in discussions. On 2 November 2013, the parties reached an arrangement that a process of “verification” would occur, in terms of which traders would have their entitlement confirmed and would be re-registered. It was also agreed that verified lawful traders would be permitted to return to their stalls once verified and re-registered. During the week of 4 November 2013, the applicants were verified and re-registered, but were nevertheless not allowed to return. Traders who attempted to return were forcibly removed again, and their stalls were dismantled.


Between 8 and 14 November 2013, further engagement occurred. The applicants’ understanding became that the City intended, not merely to verify and re-register, but to remove traders permanently and relocate some or all of them to unspecified alternative designated areas, prohibiting them from trading in the interim. The Court treated that intention as hardly in dispute, noting that a City letter stated that verified traders would be accommodated in alternative designated areas “in compliance with applicable legislation”.


The applicants thereafter launched urgent proceedings in the High Court on 15 November 2013 seeking interim relief restoring them to their trading locations pending a review of three City decisions: a decision not to permit return after verification and re-registration; a decision to relocate traders permanently to undisclosed alternative areas; and a decision to conduct verification and re-registration by first removing all traders from their locations. The City did not materially dispute the removals and resisted primarily on the contention that the matter was not urgent. The High Court struck the application off the roll for lack of urgency, which implied delay until February 2014 for a possible hearing in the ordinary course.


Legal Issues


The Constitutional Court identified three crisp and central questions.


The first was whether the Court should entertain an appeal against an interlocutory High Court order that struck the urgent application from the roll and thereby refused interim relief, and in particular whether it was in the interests of justice to hear such an appeal on an urgent basis.


The second was whether, pending the High Court’s determination of Part B (the merits review), the Constitutional Court should grant an interim interdict restoring (or protecting) the applicants’ ability to trade at the locations they occupied immediately before their removal.


The third was whether the matter warranted urgency, including whether the urgency was self-created and whether alternative procedural routes (such as seeking leave to appeal in the High Court and petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal) were adequate.


The dispute therefore involved a mixture of legal questions (appealability/interests of justice; requirements for interim interdicts; urgency), and the application of legal principles to largely undisputed facts, coupled with evaluative judgments about irreparable harm, balance of convenience, and whether interim relief would improperly intrude into executive decision-making.


Court’s Reasoning


Appealability and the interests of justice


The Court commenced with section 167(6) of the Constitution, emphasising that the Constitutional Court enjoys a wide appellate jurisdiction on constitutional matters and may decide to hear an appeal from any court where it is in the interests of justice. It rejected the notion of a rigid or “pre-ordained” divide between appealable and non-appealable interlocutory issues in constitutional matters, but stressed that hearing appeals against interlocutory decisions remains an exception, not the norm, and would generally be disfavoured because interlocutory decisions are ordinarily capable of reconsideration in the court of first instance.


The Court further noted that an urgent appeal against an interim order is an even larger exception. Relying on its prior caution in Magidiwana and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others [2013] ZACC 27; 2013 (11) BCLR 1251 (CC), the Court reiterated that it is generally not well-equipped to deal with urgent matters, particularly where temporary orders are involved, and that urgent direct appeals should be permitted as a last resort, especially where the ordinary High Court or Supreme Court of Appeal processes cannot provide timely relief.


In assessing the interests of justice, the Court applied factors it stated had emerged from prior jurisprudence, including the importance of the constitutional issue, irreparable harm, whether the interim order had a final effect or disposed of substantial relief, prospects of success in the main review, the risk of usurping the role of the review court, separation of powers concerns, and the dangers of piecemeal adjudication and wasted resources.


On the facts, the Court held that the applicants faced severe irreparable harm absent immediate intervention, and that the High Court’s striking-off order had final effect in relation to access to interim relief, because it forced the applicants to wait months while destitution continued. The Court also reasoned that the interim order sought would not anticipate the merits of Part B or prejudice the High Court, but would function as a status quo order to prevent substantial prejudice and to ensure that Part B did not become practically nugatory.


Requirements for an interim interdict and prima facie right


Having decided to hear the appeal, the Court turned to whether interim relief should be granted. It applied the conventional requirements for interim interdicts, including the existence of a prima facie right (which may be shown through prospects of success), imminent irreparable harm, the balance of convenience, and the absence of an alternative effective remedy.


On the prima facie right, the Court relied on the undisputed position that the applicants had clear entitlements to trade in the locations allocated to them under the City’s Informal Trading By-Laws and Trading Policy, specifically noting rights under section 4 of the By-Laws. The City’s stance that it intended to relocate traders to alternative designated areas brought into play section 6A of the Businesses Act 71 of 1991, which prescribes procedures for designating areas for informal trading and for declaring areas prohibited or restricted.


A decisive feature of the reasoning was that the City conceded it had not complied with the statutory prescripts in section 6A, both in its papers and at the hearing. The Court treated this non-compliance as rendering the relocation-related decisions apparently flawed, and it further recorded that the City had not identified any lawful basis for frustrating the traders’ enjoyment of their existing entitlements. It also noted the breadth of the City’s concessions, including that its officials had acted unlawfully (with counsel characterising this as having been “convenient”). On this basis, the Court concluded that the relief sought in Part B of the review had prospects of success, supporting the existence of a prima facie right.


Irreparable harm, constitutional significance, and balance of convenience


The Court accepted as undisputed evidence that the applicants’ and their families’ livelihood depended on inner-city trading and that they had been rendered destitute for over a month already. Without interim relief, they would be prevented from providing for themselves and their families for at least a further period until the earliest likely hearing date in the High Court’s ordinary roll, and potentially longer pending review and appeal processes.


The Court attached constitutional significance to the harm. It held that the ability to earn money to support oneself and one’s family is an important component of the right to human dignity, and that deprivation of this capacity entailed humiliation and degradation. It further held that the City’s conduct bore directly on the rights of children, referencing the constitutional protection in section 28(1)(c) relating to basic nutrition, shelter, and basic health care services. The Court characterised the harm faced as immediate and irreversible.


In assessing the City’s asserted prejudice, the Court held that the City conflated the position of illegal traders with that of the lawful applicant traders. It stressed that the City remained free to employ lawful measures to combat illegal trading and crime, but had no entitlement to harm lawful traders. The Court found no indication of irreversible harm to the City or residents if lawful traders returned while the City complied with legal requirements. It considered the alleged prejudice to residents, if any, as temporary when compared to the severe harm to the traders.


The Court also rejected as inadequate the suggestion that traders could claim damages later. It treated such a proposition as not addressing urgent temporary relief in circumstances where traders were persons of limited means and where the deprivation concerned basic subsistence.


Urgency


The Court held that the need for interim relief was manifestly urgent. The traders had been forcibly evicted, prevented from returning even after verification and re-registration, and subjected to ongoing hardship. The Court was not persuaded that the urgency was self-created. It considered it prudent that the traders first attempted engagement with the City before litigating, and it treated the negotiations culminating in the 2 November agreement as reasonable conduct rather than delay.


Costs


The Court held that there was no cogent reason to depart from the usual principle that costs follow the event, and accordingly ordered the City respondents to pay costs in both the High Court and the Constitutional Court, including the costs of two counsel.


Outcome and Relief


The Constitutional Court granted leave to appeal directly on an urgent basis and upheld the appeal. It set aside the High Court order of 27 November 2013 striking the matter from the roll.


In substitution, the Court granted interim relief pending determination of Part B in the High Court, interdicting the City respondents from interfering with the trading of the listed applicants at the locations they occupied immediately before their removal between 30 September and 31 October 2013.


The City respondents (first to fifth respondents) were directed to pay the applicants’ costs in the Constitutional Court and in the High Court, including, in each case, the costs of two counsel.


Cases Cited


Commissioner, South African Revenue Service v Hawker Air Services (Pty) Ltd; Commissioner, South African Revenue Service v Hawker Aviation Partnership and Others [2006] ZASCA 51; 2006 (4) SA 292 (SCA).


Knox D’Arcy Ltd and Others v Jamieson and Others [1996] ZASCA 58; 1996 (4) SA 348 (A).


Magidiwana and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others [2013] ZACC 27; 2013 (11) BCLR 1251 (CC).


National Treasury and Others v Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance and Others [2012] ZACC 18; 2012 (6) SA 223 (CC); 2012 (11) BCLR 1148 (CC).


International Trade Administration Commission v SCAW South Africa (Pty) Ltd [2010] ZACC 6; 2012 (4) SA 618 (CC); 2010 (5) BCLR 457 (CC).


Ramakatsa and Others v Magashule and Others [2012] ZACC 31; 2013 (2) BCLR 202 (CC).


Albutt v Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, and Others [2010] ZACC 4; 2010 (3) SA 293 (CC); 2010 (5) BCLR 391 (CC).


Machele and Others v Mailula and Others [2009] ZACC 7; 2010 (2) SA 257 (CC); 2009 (8) BCLR 767 (CC).


United Democratic Movement v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others (African Christian Democratic Party and Others Intervening; Institute for Democracy in South Africa and Another as Amici Curiae) (No 1) [2002] ZACC 33; 2003 (1) SA 488 (CC); 2002 (11) BCLR 1213 (CC).


Minister of Health and Others v Treatment Action Campaign and Others (1) [2002] ZACC 16; 2002 (5) SA 703 (CC); 2002 (10) BCLR 1033 (CC).


United Democratic Movement v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others (African Christian Democratic Party and Others Intervening; Institute for Democracy in South Africa and Another as Amici Curiae) (No 1) [2002] ZACC 33; 2003 (1) SA 488 (CC); 2002 (11) BCLR 1213 (CC).


Eriksen Motors (Welkom) Ltd v Protea Motors, Warrenton and Another 1973 (3) SA 685 (A).


Ferreira v Levin NO and Others; Vryenhoek and Others v Powell NO and Others 1995 (2) SA 813 (W).


Johannesburg Municipal Pension Fund and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others 2005 (6) SA 273 (W).


Minister of Home Affairs and Others v Watchenuka and Another [2003] ZASCA 142; 2004 (4) SA 326 (SCA); 2004 (2) BCLR 120 (SCA).


Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality v Greyvenouw CC and Others [2003] ZAECHC 5; 2004 (2) SA 81 (SECLD).


Legislation Cited


Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (section 167(6); section 28(1)(c)).


Businesses Act 71 of 1991 (section 6A(2)(a); section 6A(3)).


Road Traffic Act 29 of 1989 (definition of “verge” referenced in the quoted text of section 6A(3) of the Businesses Act).


City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality Informal Trading By-Laws, Provincial Gazette 66 of 14 March 2012 (including section 4).


Informal Trading Policy of the City of Johannesburg.


Rules of Court Cited


No specific Rules of Court were expressly cited in the judgment beyond the constitutional reference that national legislation or the rules of the Constitutional Court must allow direct access or direct appeals when it is in the interests of justice.


Held


The Court held that it was in the interests of justice to hear an urgent direct appeal against the High Court’s interlocutory order striking an urgent interim interdict application from the roll, because the order had a final and severely prejudicial practical effect on the traders’ ability to obtain interim relief, and because the traders faced immediate irreparable harm affecting their livelihoods, dignity, and the wellbeing of their dependants.


The Court held further that the requirements for an interim interdict were satisfied. The applicants demonstrated a prima facie right to trade in the allocated locations under the City’s regulatory framework, together with strong prospects of success in the pending review given the City’s concession that it had failed to comply with statutory procedures under the Businesses Act 71 of 1991. The Court found that the balance of convenience favoured restoring the lawful traders to their trading sites, and that alternative remedies such as later damages claims were not adequate.


LEGAL PRINCIPLES


The judgment applied the principle that, in constitutional matters, the Constitutional Court may entertain an appeal from another court, including against an interlocutory order, where doing so is in the interests of justice under section 167(6) of the Constitution. Appealability in this context is not governed by a rigid rule, but by a contextual assessment of factors including the importance of the constitutional issue, irreparable harm, whether the interim order has final effect, prospects of success, separation of powers concerns, and the avoidance of piecemeal litigation.


The judgment applied the established requirements for an interim interdict, namely a prima facie right (which may be demonstrated by prospects of success in the main proceedings), irreparable harm, a favourable balance of convenience, and the lack of an adequate alternative remedy. It treated a status quo interdict as appropriate where, without interim protection, the main proceedings could be rendered practically ineffective due to severe interim prejudice.


The judgment further applied the principle that governmental pursuit of legitimate objectives must occur in accordance with the law, and that administrative convenience does not justify unlawful conduct. Where state action deprives persons of their ability to earn a livelihood, the resulting harm may engage constitutional rights, including human dignity and, where dependants are affected, children’s rights protected by section 28(1)(c) of the Constitution.

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South African Informal Traders Forum and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others; South African National Traders Retail Association v City of Johannesburg and Others (CCT 173/13 ; CCT 174/14) [2014] ZACC 8; 2014 (6) BCLR 726 (CC); 2014 (4) SA 371 (CC) (4 April 2014)

Links to summary

CONSTITUTIONAL
COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
Cases
CCT 173/13 and CCT 174/13
In
the matter between:
SOUTH
AFRICAN INFORMAL TRADERS
FORUM
.................................................................................................................
First
Applicant
AYANDA
KELA
..............................................................................................
Second
Applicant
ROSEMARY
NDEBELE
..................................................................................
Third
Applicant
ONE
THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND
EIGHT
FURTHER APPLICANTS
.............................................
Fourth to 1211th Applicants
and
CITY
OF
JOHANNESBURG
.......................................................................
First
Respondent
JOHANNESBURG
METROPOLITAN
POLICE
DEPARTMENT
........................................................................
Second Respondent
EXECUTIVE
MAYOR OF THE
CITY
OF
JOHANNESBURG
......................................................................
Third
Respondent
CITY
MANAGER OF THE CITY OF
JOHANNESBURG
......................................................................................
Fourth
Respondent
CHIEF
OF THE JOHANNESBURG
METROPOLITAN
POLICE DEPARTMENT
..........................................
Fifth Respondent
SOUTH
AFRICAN NATIONAL TRADERS
RETAIL
ASSOCIATION
.............................................................................
Sixth
Respondent
CENTRAL
JOHANNESBURG PARTNERSHIP
..................................
Seventh
Respondent
And
in the matter between:
SOUTH
AFRICAN NATIONAL TRADERS
RETAIL
ASSOCIATION
.......................................................................................
Applicant
and
CITY
OF
JOHANNESBURG
...............................................................
First
Respondent
JOHANNESBURG
METROPOLITAN
POLICE
DEPARTMENT
................................................................
Second Respondent
EXECUTIVE
MAYOR OF THE
CITY
OF
JOHANNESBURG
............................................................
Third
Respondent
CITY
MANAGER OF THE CITY OF
JOHANNESBURG
..........................................................................
Fourth
Respondent
CHIEF
OF THE JOHANNESBURG
METROPOLITAN
POLICE DEPARTMENT
................................
Fifth
Respondent
CENTRAL
JOHANNESBURG PARTNERSHIP
..........................
Sixth Respondent
SOUTH
AFRICAN INFORMAL TRADERS FORUM
.............
Seventh Respondent
AYANDA
KELA
................................................................................
Eighth Respondent
ROSEMARY
NDEBELE
..................................................................
Ninth Respondent
ONE
THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND
EIGHT
FURTHER RESPONDENTS
.............................
Tenth
to 1217th Respondents
Neutral
citation:
South African Informal
Traders Forum and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others; South
African National Traders Retail Association
v City of Johannesburg
and Others
[2014] ZACC 8
Coram:
Moseneke ACJ, Skweyiya ADCJ, Cameron J, Dambuza
AJ, Froneman J, Jafta J, Madlanga J, Mhlantla AJ, Nkabinde J and
Zondo J
Heard
on:
5 December 2013
Order
granted:
5 December 2013
Judgment
on:
4 April 2014
Summary:
Urgent application –
appealability of interim orders – unlawful evictions –
interim relief – South African
Informal Trading By Laws
and Trading Policy
JUDGMENT
MOSENEKE
ACJ (Skweyiya ADCJ, Cameron J, Dambuza AJ, Froneman J, Jafta J,
Madlanga J, Mhlantla AJ, Nkabinde J and Zondo J concurring):
Introduction
[1]
On
5 December 2013 this Court heard, as a matter of urgency, two
applications together.
[1]
Both
sought leave to appeal a decision of the South Gauteng High Court
(High Court), per Monama J. We made the following order:

1.
Leave to appeal directly to this Court on an urgent basis is granted.
2.
The appeal is upheld.
3.
The order of the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, made on
27 November 2013, under case number 43427/13, is set aside.
4.
The following order is made:
a)
Pending the determination of Part B of the application in the High
Court, the first to fifth respondents are interdicted from

interfering with the trading of the applicants listed in Annexures A
and B to this order at the locations they occupied immediately
before
their removal between 30 September and 31 October 2013.
b)
The first to fifth respondents are directed to pay the applicants’
costs in this Court and in the High Court including,
in each case,
the costs of two counsel.”
[2]
This Court now furnishes its reasons
for the order.
[3]
When women and men in government
disregard the law, their conduct may very well cause much hardship,
particularly for the vulnerable
amongst us. The facts of this case
show so and remind us of the words of our beloved and departed
President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela:

Even
the most benevolent of governments are made up of people with all the
propensities for human failings. The rule of law as we
understand it
consists in the set of conventions and arrangements that ensure that
it is not left to the whims of individual rulers
to decide on what is
good for the populace. The administrative conduct of government and
authorities are subject to the scrutiny
of independent organs. This
is an essential element of good governance that we have sought to
have built into our new constitutional
order”.
[2]
Parties
[4]
The
first applicant in the first application
[3]
is the South African Informal Traders Forum (Traders Forum). The
second and further applicants (the traders) are 1 210 people

who, until October 2013, were trading lawfully on 24 street blocks in
the inner city of Johannesburg with the permission of
the City
of Johannesburg (City or first respondent). The applicant in the
second application
[4]
is the
South African National Traders Retail Association (Retail
Association). It represents 952 traders specified in an annexure
to
the application. They too trade in the inner city with the requisite
written permission of the City under its By Laws and
Trading
Policy.
[5]
[5]
The
City opposes the relief sought.  It has been cited together with
its other functionaries as the second to fifth respondents
(City
respondents).
[6]
Also
cited is the Central Johannesburg Partnership, as the seventh
respondent in the first application and the sixth respondent
in the
second application, which is a non governmental body that seeks
to advance the broad interest of trading and business
within the
inner city.  It supports informal trading but has made
submissions on what it considers to be in the best interests
of the
inner city trading and stops short of opposing the relief sought.
Background
[6]
During October 2013, officers of the
City’s Metro Police forcibly evicted the informal traders from
their trading stalls and
confiscated their goods. Amongst those
evicted were the applicants listed in an annexure to each of the
applications. The City
has granted to each of the listed applicants
written permission to trade in a manner consistent with its By-Laws
read with its
Trading Policy.  Most have traded there for many
years. Some as long as twenty years.
[7]
The last evictions and confiscations
took place on 30 October 2013. The Metro Police were acting on
the instructions of the
Mayor. From there, the City respondents named
the mass eviction of informal traders “the Mayoral Clean Sweep”
also
known as “Operation Clean Sweep”. According to the
City, the professed object of “Operation Clean Sweep”
was
to rid the City of unsightly and disorderly trading areas. These, it
alleged, gave rise to disorderliness, criminality and
obstruction of
citizens’ rights to the proper use and enjoyment of facilities
in and around trading areas. Although laudable,
these objectives
behind the City’s action are not in issue before us since the
City, on the undisputed facts and by its own
concession, had gone
about achieving its objectives in flagrant disregard of the traders’
rights. Even so the City respondents
have never suggested that any of
the traders in the two applications were trading illegally. The
startling feature of the mass
evictions was that the City did not
bother to distinguish between the traders who have always been doing
business legally, and
other informal traders who have not.
[8]
Faced with indiscriminate evictions,
the applicants opened discussions with the City respondents to
negotiate a return to their
lawful trading activities. Prolonged
negotiations followed. On 2 November 2013, the City and the
applicants agreed to a process
of “verification”. This
meant that all the traders would submit to a process in which their
rights to ply their goods
would be verified and they would be
“re registered”. The parties also agreed that the
traders would be allowed
to return to their trading stalls once they
had been “verified” as lawful traders and had
“re registered”
themselves.
[9]
During the week of 4 November 2013,
the applicants were verified as lawful traders and re-registered
themselves, but contrary to
the arrangement of 2 November 2013,
they were not permitted to return to their stalls. Those who did so
were forcibly
removed by Metro Police who also dismantled the stalls
previously used by the traders.
[10]
Between
8 and 14 November 2013, the applicants again engaged the City
respondents in a further attempt to give effect to the agreement
of
2 November 2013. They say it became increasingly clear to them
that “Operation Clean Sweep” was not an attempt
to verify
and re-register the lawful informal traders in the inner city.
Instead, it was an initiative to remove them permanently
from their
trading stalls and relocate some or all of them to unknown
“alternative designated areas”, and prohibit
them from
trading in the interim. This is hardly in dispute between the
parties.  In fact, that design of the City is spelled
out
forthrightly in a letter from the City to the applicants’
attorneys.
[7]
Litigation
history
[11]
On
15 November 2013, the applicants started proceedings for urgent
interim relief.  They contended that they had permission
to
trade; that they have been prevented from trading since their
eviction; that their livelihood was and continued to be threatened
by
the City’s evictions; that they faced irreparable harm that
undermined their fundamental rights to trade and dignity;
and that
the balance of convenience favoured them.  They added that the
City’s new scheme to relocate the traders was,
in any event,
unlawful because it had not followed the steps required of it by
section 6A of the Businesses Act.
[8]
[12]
The applicants sought, as they did
in this Court, urgent interim relief, permitting them to trade at the
locations where they had
traded before “Operation Clean Sweep”
was implemented.  This relief was sought pending a review of
three decisions
of the City:
(a)
the decision taken during the week of 4
November 2013 not to allow the traders to return to their places of
business after they
had verified and re registered themselves;
(b)
the decision that came to the attention of
the applicants on 14 November 2013, to relocate them permanently
to undisclosed
alternative designated trading areas; and
(c)
the decision taken prior to 30 September
2013 to conduct a verification and re-registration process in respect
of the applicants
by first removing all of them from their trading
locations on the various blocks where they did business prior to
“Operation
Clean Sweep”.
[13]
Save
to deny that they had not consulted the applicants’
representatives, the City did not dispute the existence of “Operation

Clean Sweep” and the forcible eviction of the applicants.
The City resisted the application on the slim platform that
the
applicants had not shown that the relief they sought was urgent.
Monama J summarily struck the application off the roll, on
the
footing that it was not urgent.  He furnished no written reasons
for his decision.  The implication was that the
applicants would
have to re-enrol the matter on the ordinary court roll.
[9]
This meant that they would have to wait until February 2014 for
a possible hearing directed at final relief.
[14]
In this Court, the applicants argued
that the interests of justice pointed toward hearing the appeal and
granting them interim relief.
The City respondents did not
seriously dispute the facts put up by the applicants.  Instead,
they confined themselves to arguing
that it would not be in the
interests of justice to entertain the appeal because the impugned
order was interlocutory and not appealable;
that the High Court was
correct to strike off the application for lack of urgency; and that
the applicants failed to show that
they would suffer irreparable
harm, if interim relief were not granted.  The City respondents
added, in a somewhat muffled
tone, that granting interim relief would
trespass into the exclusive executive domain of the local government.
Issues
[15]
The issues in both applications were
identical, predictable and crisp.  They emerge readily from the
terms of our Court order.
They were (a) whether we should hear
the appeal against an interlocutory order of the High Court striking
the application from
the roll and thus refusing the interim
interdict; (b) whether, pending the High Court’s decision on
the merits, we should
grant interim relief; and (c) whether the
appeal deserves an urgent hearing.  Pithily stated, we have to
decide appealability,
merits of the interim relief and urgency.
Leave
to appeal
[16]
As always the starting point is our
Constitution.  Section 167(6) provides:

National
legislation or the rules of the Constitutional Court must allow a
person, when it is in the interests of justice and with
leave of the
Constitutional Court––
(a)
to bring a matter directly to the Constitutional Court; or
(b)
to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court from any other court.”
[17]
This
provision makes it plain that the Court has a wide appellate
jurisdiction on constitutional matters. It may decide whether
to hear
an appeal from any court on any constitutional dispute provided it
serves the interests of justice to do so.  There
is no
pre-ordained divide between appealable and non-appealable issues.
Provided a dispute relates to a constitutional matter,
there is no
general rule that prevents this Court from hearing an appeal against
an interlocutory decision such as the refusal
of an interim
interdict.
[10]
However,
it would be appealable only if the interests of justice so
demand.
[11]
Thus, this
Court would not without more agree to hear an appeal that impugns an
interlocutory decision, especially because
such a decision is open to
reconsideration by the court that has granted it.  Doing so
would be an exception rather than the
norm.
[18]
An even bigger exception would be to
hear an appeal against an interlocutory order on an urgent basis. In
Magidiwana
we warned:

This
Court is not well-equipped to deal with urgent matters in general.
Where an appeal relates to a temporary order, this
difficulty becomes
even more acute.”
[12]
(Footnote
omitted.)
[19]
It follows that, as a general rule,
an urgent appeal to this Court against an interim order should be
permitted as a last resort,
and when it has been shown, as was the
case here, that the High Court or the Supreme Court of Appeal system
does not provide a
proper urgent procedure which could result in the
relief pursued by an applicant.
[20]
The
question whether a particular interim order is appealable is not
novel.  This Court has considered the appealability of
interim
orders.  What was different, in each case, was the factual
setting.
[13]
The applicable
test is whether hearing the appeal serves the interests of justice.
In making this determination, the Court
must have regard to and
weigh carefully all relevant circumstances.  The factors that
are relevant, or decisive in a particular
instance, will vary from
case to case.  Even so, this Court has developed a collection of
factors that help it decide whether
to hear an appeal against an
interlocutory decision of another court. These include:
(a)
the
kind and importance of the constitutional issue raised;
[14]
(b)
whether
irreparable harm would result if leave to appeal is not granted;
[15]
(c)
whether
the interim order has a final effect or disposes of a substantial
portion of the relief sought in a pending review;
[16]
(d)
whether
there are prospects of success in the pending review;
[17]
(e)
whether,
in deciding an appeal against an interim order, the appellate court
would usurp the role of the review court;
[18]
(f)
whether
interim relief would unduly trespass on the exclusive terrain of the
other branches of government, before the final determination
of the
review grounds;
[19]
and
(g)
whether
allowing the appeal would lead to piecemeal adjudication and prolong
the litigation or lead to wasteful use of judicial
resources or legal
costs.
[20]
[21]
We weighed carefully these
considerations and concluded that it was in the interests of justice
to hear the appeal on an urgent
basis.  If leave to appeal were
not granted the applicants would have suffered severe irreparable
harm and yet the balance
of convenience favoured them.  About
these considerations, in
Machele
,
albeit in a slightly different context, Skweyiya J observed:

The
primary consideration in determining whether it is in the interests
of justice for a litigant to be granted leave to appeal
against an
interim order of execution is, therefore, whether irreparable harm
would result if leave to appeal is not granted.  The
applicant
would have to show that irreparable harm would result if the interim
order were to be granted.  A court will have
regard to the
possibility of irreparable harm and the balance of convenience.”
[21]
(Footnote omitted.)
[22]
Another
consideration is whether the interim relief would thwart the judicial
role of the review court.  The order sought by
the applicants
before this Court would not anticipate any part of the main
proceedings to be determined before the High Court
in Part B.
Nor would it prejudice such proceedings.  On the contrary,
without an order from this Court, the damage in
the interim would be
so severe that the applicants’ ability to obtain relief from
the High Court in Part B would substantially
be rendered nugatory.
The order sought now is thus no more than a “status quo order”
granted in the interests
of justice “to prevent what might
otherwise be substantial prejudice.”
[22]
[23]
The discussion of the merits will
show that the High Court’s refusal to grant interim relief is
final in effect. There remains
no doubt that we had to hear the
appeal.
Interim
interdict
[24]
Once
we grant leave to appeal our immediate concern becomes whether we
should grant temporary relief.  Foremost is whether
the
applicant has shown a prima facie right that is likely to lead
to the relief sought in the main dispute.  This requirement
is
weighed up along with the irreparable and imminent harm to the right
if an interdict is not granted and whether the balance
of convenience
favours the granting of the interdict.  Lastly, the applicant
must have no other effective remedy.
[23]
A
prima facie right?
[25]
A
prima facie right may be established by demonstrating prospects of
success in the review.
[24]
There is no dispute over the entitlement of the applicants to
trade in the stalls the City has allocated to them.  The
traders
have clear, undisputed rights under section 4 of the By-Laws to do
business in the locations where they traded before they
were removed.
[26]
The
City’s case is that it intended to relocate informal traders to
“alternative designated [trading] areas.”
Section
6A(3) of the Businesses Act prescribes the steps the City must follow
to designate a trading area for informal trading.
[25]
None of these requirements have been followed.  The City readily
conceded, correctly so, in its papers and during the
hearing before
this Court that it had not met the prescripts of the statutory
provision.  The decision to relocate the traders
appears flawed.
[27]
The
City’s decision to declare certain areas as prohibited or
restricted was not made in accordance with the procedure in
section
6A(2)(a) of the Businesses Act.
[26]
The City confesses to this flaw.  It offered to cure the defects
in the process it followed while offering an interim
arrangement.
But the interim solution offered by the City is that the
evictions must persist and the traders must settle
for relocation to
yet unspecified areas or stalls.
[28]
The City has not identified any
lawful ground that permits it to frustrate the enjoyment of these
rights. The City does not dispute
the unlawfulness of its officials’
conduct.  Counsel for the City expressly submitted that the City
acted unlawfully,
but that doing so had been “convenient”.
These concessions were so extensive that it even seemed
conceivable
that this Court might grant final relief.  The
relief sought in the pending review in Part B of the notice of motion
is likely
to be granted and thus bears prospects of success.
Imminent
irreparable harm and balance of convenience
[29]
The undisputed evidence showed that
the applicants and their families’ livelihood depended on their
trading in the inner city.
They had been rendered destitute and
unable to provide for their families for over a month and they would
have been precluded from
providing for their families for at least
another two and a half months until mid-February 2014 at the very
earliest.
[30]
That, we were told by counsel of
both sides, was the earliest date an application for leave to appeal
could possibly be heard by
the High Court.  This is because that
application would have to be enrolled in the ordinary course as it
had already been
adjudged as not urgent.  Obviously so, the
order striking the application off the roll had a final effect in
relation to the
possibility of accessing interim relief of trading in
the inner city.  This meant the financially perilous condition
of the
traders would have had to remain so until the opposed
application for review of the decisions of the City was finalised and
possibly
until the final appellate stage.  It is hard to imagine
how any destitute street vendor would survive a ruinous delay of that

kind.
[31]
It
must be added that the eviction of the traders involved
constitutional issues of considerable significance. The ability of
people
to earn money and support themselves and their families is an
important component of the right to human dignity.  Without it

they faced “humiliation and degradation”.
[27]
Most traders, we were told, have dependants.  Many of
these dependants are children, who also have suffered hardship
as the
City denied their breadwinners’ lawful entitlement to conduct
their businesses.  The City has not disputed this.
The
City’s conduct has a direct and on going bearing on the
rights of children, including their direct rights to basic
nutrition,
shelter and basic health care services.
[28]
The harm the traders were facing was immediate and irreversible.
[32]
The City’s response to the
applicants’ claim of irreparable harm and that the balance of
convenience favours them was
twofold.  First, it readily and
correctly conceded the applicants would suffer prejudice or harm but
qualified the admission
by arguing that the harm would be temporary.
Second, the City contended that if the applicants were allowed to
return to
their trading stalls, the inner city would be “chaotic,
uncontrolled and illegal trading with its concomitant crime and grime

[will] be permitted to return to the streets of Johannesburg.”
It referred to the prejudice to be suffered by residents of
the City
“who no longer have access to ATMs, walk-in banks, cinemas,
departmental stores, restaurants and other amenities
because of
criminality that hides among the illegal hawkers.”
[33]
Clearly, the City was conflating the
position of illegal traders with that of the applicant traders.  It
is open to the City
to use all lawful means to combat illegal trading
and other criminal conduct.  But it has no entitlement to cause
harm to
lawful, if not vulnerable, traders. Even so, the City argued
in the alternative that if the Court were minded to grant the relief

sought, the order should return verified lawful traders it evicted in
the first instance.  Again the City missed the point.
It may not
remove or evict traders who have a right to trade without observing
requirements of its By-Laws.
[34]
We
were not pointed to any irreversible harm or palpable inconvenience
the City might face by acting in accordance with the prescripts
of
the law in its bid to evict the applicants.  The City did not
say irreparable harm would be suffered by the residents,
should the
traders be left to continue trading while the City conducts its
expeditious verification process.  The prejudice
allegedly
suffered by the residents, if any, was temporary as compared to the
severe irreparable harm the applicants suffered and
would have
suffered.
[29]
The City
was content to argue, that at the end of the review proceedings, the
traders may claim damages suffered, if any.
This is no answer
to the pressing and urgent temporary relief the applicants asked for.
The evidence showed that informal
traders were people on
limited earnings derived from their street trading.  A promise
of possible future recompense may well
border on the cynical.
Urgency
[35]
At the urging of the City, the High
Court struck off the roll the application for interim relief on the
ground that it was not urgent.
In this Court too, the City
placed much store by the urgency contention.  Even if the matter
was urgent, the argument ran,
the applicants could have applied for
leave to appeal to the High Court and later petitioned the Supreme
Court of Appeal.
[36]
We have already said much that shows
that the application for interim relief was manifestly urgent. The
City had evicted the applicants
from their trading areas or stalls
and refused to allow them back, even though they had been verified
and re registered at
the behest of the City.  Although the
City admittedly failed to follow the processes in the Businesses Act,
it forcibly evicted
the applicant traders.  Its conduct spawned
immediate and acute hardship that left the applicant traders
destitute.
It was never disputed that they were unable to feed
or house themselves or their families.  The situation would have
only
worsened if it persisted.
[37]
Another
of the City’s contentions was that the urgency the applicants
relied on was self-created and ought not to be entertained.
Even
if it is accepted that urgency arose as early as October 2013, it was
only prudent and salutary that the applicants
first sought to engage
the City before they rushed off to Court.
[30]
That engagement, as mentioned above, produced the agreement of
2 November 2013.
[38]
I find nothing dilatory in the
efforts of the applicants to engage the City and persuade it to
restore them to their trading positions
in the inner city.  Their
return to their trading stalls remained urgent throughout the
engagements or negotiations attempted
before an urgent application
was launched. Even by the time they approached this Court, their
claims were self-evidently urgent
and so we concluded.
Costs
[39]
No cogent reason was placed before
us, nor could we find any, why costs should not follow the event. We
ordered the City respondents
to pay the costs of the applicants in
the High Court and in this Court.
In
CCT 173/13:
For
the Applicants:
Advocate
P Kennedy SC, Advocate S Budlender, Advocate S Wilson and
Advocate N Muvangua instructed by SERI Law Clinic.
For
the First to Fifth Respondents:
Advocate
G Malindi SC, Advocate T Machaba and Advocate J Bleazard
instructed by Mchunu Attorneys.
For
the Seventh Respondent:
Advocate
J Raff instructed by Mervyn J Smith Attorneys.
In
CCT 174/13:
For
the Applicant:
Advocate
C Georgiades and Advocate M Augustine instructed by Routledge Modise
Inc.
For
the First to Fifth Respondents:
Advocate
G Malindi SC, Advocate T Machaba and Advocate J Bleazard
instructed by Mchunu Attorneys.
[1]
One
brought by the South African Informal Traders Forum under CCT 173/13
and another by the South African National Traders Retail
Association
under CCT 174/13.
[2]
Address
at the International Ombudsman Institute VIIth
International
Conference on Balancing the Exercise of Governmental Power and its
Accountability, delivered at Durban, 2000.
[3]
CCT
173/13.
[4]
CCT
174/13.
[5]
Published
in City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality Informal Trading
By-Laws,
Provincial
Gazette
66
of 14 March 2012 (By-Laws).  See also the Informal Trading
Policy of the City of Johannesburg (Trading Policy).
Each
member is reflected in the City’s database of licensed
traders.  213 have been issued smartcards.  111 trade

in the City’s Urban Genesis City Improvement District (CID).
Urban Genesis maintains a database, sourced from the
City’s
database of authorised traders, of those traders who trade within
the Urban Genesis CID, and those traders are not
issued with letters
or smartcards.  The remaining 628 trade in demarcated areas;
some have letters to trade; all 628 are
in any event reflected in
the City’s database of licensed traders.
[6]
The
second respondent is the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department
(Metro Police), a municipal entity controlled by the
City.  The
third respondent is Councillor Mpho Parks Tau, the Executive Mayor
of the City cited in his official capacity.
The fourth
respondent is Trevor Fowler, the City Manager, cited in his official
capacity as the head of administration of the
City.  The fifth
respondent is Brigadier Zwelibanzi Nyanda.  He is cited in his
official capacity as the chief of the
Metro Police.
[7]
The
letter dated 13 November 2013 reads in part as follows:

Our
client has since agreed with the representative of the traders that
upon finalisation of the verification process, all traders
who meet
the requirements for legal trading will be accommodated in
alternative designated areas, in compliance with applicable

legislation.”
[8]
71
of 1991.
[9]
See
Commissioner,
South African Revenue Service v Hawker Air Services (Pty) Ltd;
Commissioner, South African Revenue Service v Hawker
Aviation
Partnership and Others
[2006] ZASCA 51
;
2006 (4) SA 292
(SCA) at para 9.
[10]
See
Knox
D’Arcy Ltd and Others v Jamieson and Others
[1996] ZASCA 58
;
1996 (4) SA 348
(A) at 356H 359E.
[11]
See
Magidiwana
and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others
[2013] ZACC 27
;
2013 (11) BCLR 1251
(CC) (
Magidiwana
)
at paras 6-11 and 17;
National
Treasury and Others v Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance and
Others
[2012] ZACC 18
;
2012 (6) SA 223
(CC);
2012 (11) BCLR 1148
(CC)
(
OUTA
)
at paras 22-30; and
lnternational
Trade Administration Commission v SCAW South Africa (Pty) Ltd
[2010] ZACC 6
;
2012 (4) SA 618
(CC);
2010 (5) BCLR 457
(CC) (
ITAC
)
at paras 47-59
.
[12]
Magidiwana
above
n 11 at para 8.
[13]
Ramakatsa
and Others v Magashule and Others
[2012]
ZACC 31
;
2013 (2) BCLR 202
(CC) at paras 20-36;
Albutt
v Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, and Others
[2010] ZACC 4
;
2010 (3) SA 293
(CC);
2010 (5) BCLR 391
(CC) at paras
21-5;
Machele
and Others v Mailula and Others
[2009]
ZACC
7
;
2010
(2)
SA
257
(CC);
2009
(8)
BCLR
767
(CC) (
Machele
)
at paras 22-4;
United
Democratic Movement v President of the Republic of South Africa and
Others (African Christian Democratic Party and Others
Intervening;
Institute for Democracy in South Africa and Another as Amici Curiae)
(No 1)
[2002]
ZACC 33
;
2003 (1) SA 488
(CC);
2002 (11) BCLR 1213
(CC) at paras
4-7; and
Minister
of Health and Others v Treatment Action Campaign and Others (1)
[2002]
ZACC 16
;
2002 (5) SA 703
(CC);
2002 (10) BCLR 1033
(CC) at paras
5-14.  See also
Magidiwan
a
above n 11 at paras 6-10;
OUTA
above
n 11 at paras 23-30; and
ITAC
above n 11 at paras 47-55.
[14]
ITAC
above
n 11 at para 55
.
[15]
See
Machele
above n 13 at paras 23-8.
[16]
See
OUTA
above n 11 at para 25.
[17]
Id
at para 26.
[18]
Id.
[19]
Id.
[20]
ITAC
above
n 11 at para 50.
[21]
Machele
above
n 13 at para 24.
[22]
United
Democratic Movement
above
n 13 at para 12.
[23]
See
OUTA
above n 11 at para 41.
[24]
Eriksen
Motors (Welkom) Ltd v Protea Motors, Warrenton and Another
1973 (3) SA 685
(A) at 691C-G, explained in
Ferreira
v Levin NO and Others; Vryenhoek and Others v Powell NO and Others
1995 (2) SA 813
(W) at 832D-833H.  See also
Johannesburg
Municipal Pension Fund and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others
2005
(6) SA 273
(W) at para 8.
[25]
Section
6A(3) provides:

Notwithstanding
the provisions of any other law, a local authority may—
(a)
by resolution, after compliance
mutatis mutandis
with the
provisions of subsection (2)(b) up to and including (h), lease
any verge as defined in section 1 of the Road Traffic
Act, 1989, or
any portion thereof, to the owner or occupier of the contiguous land
on the condition that such owner or occupier
shall admit a specified
number of street vendors, pedlars or hawkers in stands or places on
such verge designated by such owner
or occupier;
(b) (i) set apart
by resolution and demarcate stands or areas for the purposes of the
carrying on of the business of street vendor,
pedlar or hawker on
any public road the ownership or management of which is vested in
the local authority or on any other property
in the occupation and
under the control of the local authority; and
(ii)
in like manner extend, reduce or disestablish any such stand or
area;
(c)
by agreement let or otherwise allocate any stand or area demarcated
under paragraph (b)(i) or otherwise established for
such
purposes.”
[26]
Section
6A(2)(a) provides:

A
local authority may, subject to the provisions of paragraphs (b) up
to and including (j), by resolution declare any place in
its area of
jurisdiction to be an area in which the carrying on of the business
of street vendors, pedlar or hawker may be restricted
or
prohibited.”
[27]
Minister
of Home Affairs and Others v Watchenuka and Another
[2003]
ZASCA 142
;
2004 (4) SA 326
(SCA);
2004 (2) BCLR 120
(SCA) at para
32.
[28]
Section
28(1)(c) of the Constitution.
[29]
As mentioned in [31] above.
[30]
See
Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan Municipality v Greyvenouw CC
and
Others
[2003]
ZAECHC 5
;
2004 (2) SA 81
(SECLD) at para 34.