High Court declares City of Johannesburg’s temporary accommodation model unconstitutional –  Today the Johannesburg High Court ordered that two house rules being imposed on residents of the Ekuthuleni shelter are an unjustifiable infringement on the residents’ rights to privacy, freedom and security of the person and human dignity. Judge Wepener interdicted the City of Johannesburg and its service provider, Metropolitan Evangelical Services (MES), against enforcing these rules at the shelter. Ekuthuleni shelter was provided by the City to some of the residents of Saratoga Avenue who were relocated after the Blue Moonlight judgment by the Constitutional Court in 2011. The City outsourced the management of the shelter to MES, a Christian organisation that runs shelters and provides other social services for homeless people in the inner city. The City contracted MES to apply its “managed care model”, which it implements in its own homeless shelters, in Ekuthuleni. The City argued that Ekuthuleni is an overnight facility “akin to hotels, hospitals and student residents” and does not constitute a “home”. However the Judge found that the managed care model primarily caters for the supply of overnight facilities and is “not developed to accommodate persons in an emergency or temporary situation, as ordered in Blue Moonlight.” Download full PDF Document – Dladla judgment_22Aug14 FINAL