CCT173/13

CCT174/13

[2014] ZACC 8

2014 (6) BCLR 726 (CC)

2014 (4) SA 371 (CC)

Moseneke ACJ

5 December 2013

4 April 2014

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12144/3743

Application for leave to appeal against an order of the Johannesburg High Court 27 November 2013.

Urgent application – appealability of interim orders – unlawful evictions – interim relief – South African Informal Trading By-Laws and Trading Policy. Two urgent applications, on 5 December 2013, for leave to appeal against a decision of the South Gauteng High Court. The Constitutional Court made an order granting leave to appeal, upholding the appeal and setting aside the order of the High Court. On 4 April 2014 the Court furnished reasons for the order in a unanimous judgment written by Moseneke ACJ. The Court held that a refusal to grant leave to appeal would have caused the traders to suffer irreparable harm. The undisputed evidence showed that the applicants and their families’ livelihood depended on their trading in the inner city. At the time of the hearing, they had been rendered destitute and unable to provide for their families for over a month. Seeing that an application for leave to appeal to the High Court would have been heard in February 2014 at the earliest, the traders would have been precluded from providing for their families until that time. The City’s conduct impaired the dignity of the traders and their children and had a direct and on-going adverse effect on their rights to basic nutrition, shelter and basic health care services. Judgment: Moseneke ACJ (unanimous).