After the end of apartheid, South Africa enacted one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The Constitution of South Africa guarantees a host of social and economic rights, including the right of access to adequate housing for all South Africans. Given the inclusion of this right in the Constitution, the issue presented in this paper is whether litigation has been an effective tool for advancing access to housing in South Africa. Since 2001, numerous cases in Constitutional Court involving the right to housing have highlighted the successes and failures of litigation as a mechanism for improving access to adequate housing in South Africa. This paper finds that the use of litigation as a tool for advancing the right to housing for individuals is limited. However, litigation, combined with other forms of advocacy, has worked to change government housing policy on a wider scale. The ultimate success or failure of the right to housing in South Africa has implications for human rights across the world.

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