Abstract

This article considers the interface between urban local government and sectional title, focusing specifically on the governance of residential apartment blocks in urban areas. It argues that the governance of sectional title schemes is currently wrongly depicted in South African law as being predominantly ‘private’ and contractual in nature. Based on a historical overview and qualitative case study of apartment building governance in centrally located suburbs in the city of Johannesburg, the article argues that building governance ought to be reconceptualised as being located primarily within a public-law paradigm, more specifically as forming part of the ‘special cluster of relationships’ that govern service delivery in South African cities and that give rise to public-law rights and responsibilities, ultimately sourced in the Constitution, for all the relevant parties. This would imply that the relationship between cities and sectional title schemes ought to be viewed as one between local government and rights-bearing stakeholders (rather than customers or residential subjects). Moreover, it would require that sectional title schemes’ governing agents be both adequately empowered and adequately held accountable, under administrative and constitutional law, for exercising their governance functions.