The government’s tough stance on land invasions will be put to the test by a recent court decision it fears may reward squatters.
The Department of Land Affairs is worried that a ruling that it take care of 40 000 evicted squatters will compel it to provide housing for anyone evicted from private property. This effectively allows squatters to jump housing queues, said Abbey Makoe, chief director of communication at the department.
Pretoria High Court Judge William de Villiers in November gave the government until February 28 to present a plan to comply with an earlier court order evicting 40 000 squatters from the Gabon settlement near Benoni.
The squatters settled on Modderklip farm near Benoni three years ago and the owner, Abraham Duvenhage, says he has been struggling to remove them ever since. In October 2000 Duvenhage won a court order to remove the squatters from his farm.
But then the sheriff told Duvenhage to deposit R1,8-million so a private security company could be hired to take care of the eviction. Duvenhage could not pay the money and the situation deteriorated as ever more people settled on his land.
Farmers’ unions have adopted the case as a cause cÃ