You are the ''weakest link'' in realising socio-economic rights: Goodbye - Strategies for effective implemention of court orders in South Africa

Abstract

The justiciable place of socio-economic rights in the South African Constitution is being undermined by non-compliance with court orders issued in court processes involving the enforcement of these rights. This has, in some cases, left successful litigants stranded and unable to benefit from the orders arising from their victories. One of the provinces where this problem has risen to unprecedented levels is the Eastern Cape, as is clear from the many social grant judgments which have not been implemented as directed by the courts. Generally speaking, non-implementation can be blamed on the approach adopted by the courts as seen, for instance, in the Constitutional Court’s reluctance to use the structural interdict.