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The Climate Litigation Database

Philippi Horticultural Area Food & Farming Campaign, et al. v. MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning: Western Cape, et al.

Geography
Year
2017
Document Type
Litigation

About this case

Filing year
2017
Status
Decided
Court/admin entity
South Africa → High Court
Case category
Suits against governments (Global) → Environmental assessment and permitting (Global) → Climate adaptation (Global)
Principal law
South Africa → Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000
At issue
Petitioners challenged administrative decision allowing urban development.
Topics
, ,  

Documents

Summary

The South African High Court has remanded an administrative decision allowing urban development with instructions to more fully consider climate change impacts. Since May 2011, the Province and City of Cape Town have taken steps to allow urban development in the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA). The PHA Food and Farming Campaign and its convener, Nazeer Ahmed Sonday, challenged those actions on several grounds, including that development would threaten a local aquifer. On February 18, 2020 a judge of the South African High Court found that the Province and City had made several errors and remanded with instructions to, among other things, reconsider the decision's effect on existing rights related to the aquifer "in the context of climate change and water scarcity."

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Group
Topics
Policy instrument
Risk
Impacted group
Just transition
Economic sector
Adaptation/resilience
Finance