Social Justice Coalition and Others v Minister of Police and Others

Civil society organisations representing poor and predominantly Black communities in the Western Cape challenged the allocation of police human resources by the South African Police Service (SAPS). Following findings by the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry that SAPS’ resource-allocation model (THRR) systematically under-resourced poor, Black areas, the applicants approached the Equality Court. In December 2018, the Equality Court declared that police resource allocation in the Western Cape unfairly discriminated on the grounds of race and poverty and postponed the determination of an appropriate remedy. Over several years, attempts to finalise a remedy stalled amid delays, disagreements over SAPS’ proposed Integrated Resource Strategy, and administrative difficulties in the Equality Court. The applicants then approached the Constitutional Court seeking a declaratory order that the Equality Court had constructively refused to grant a remedy due to unreasonable delay, and sought leave to appeal or direct access.

Leave to appeal was refused.

The case is significant for clarifying the limits of the Constitutional Court’s intervention in incomplete proceedings before lower courts and for developing the concept of ‘constructive refusal’ in the context of access to courts. Substantively, it also highlights the landmark Equality Court finding that poverty can constitute a ground of unfair discrimination in policing resource allocation, even though that issue was not revisited on the merits in this judgment.