Developing a Community Engagement Model as a Normative Framework for Meaningful Engagement During Evictions

Abstract

The research problem of this study is the jurisprudential inconsistency in the application of the right in section 26(3) of the South African Constitution's Bill of Rights. The inconsistency is due to inadequate conceptualisation of the substantive requirements of meaningful engagement (ME) by the South African Constitutional Court (ConCourt). The central argument is that the development of a community engagement model based on the substantive requirements of ME will enhance the application of section 26(3). This study commences by illustrating the disempowering nature to the squatters of the apartheid evictions in South Africa. To tighten influx control, the apartheid regime introduced a battery of laws that disempowered the squatters. The apartheid-induced disempowerment of the squatters penetrated into the democratic dispensation. In the examination of the normative context of evictions post-1994, this study identifies six primary drivers for substantive involvement of the occupiers during evictions. The six primary drivers seek to address the disempowering trajectory during evictions.