Modderklip’s 12 000 illegal squatters are to be shifted from their present location, and the government will not be buying the invaded land from the farmer who owns it.
This decision follows last week’s landmark Constitutional Court judgement, which ordered the authorities either to buy the occupied land from the farmer, Braam Duvenhage, or to find an alternative site to house residents of the ”Gabon” shack settlement.
Ekurhuleni Metro Council spokesperson Zweli Dlamini told the Mail & Guardian that alternative land had already been identified and the squatters would be moved as soon as an environmental impact assessment had been completed. The alternative land is close to their current location, near Benoni on the East Rand.
”Modderklip is unsuitable for a housing scheme,” said Dlamini. ”It will be a waste of time to build structures on the currently occupied land, as there is underground mining activity and the houses would be unsafe.”
Duvenage will only be paid compensation for the 50ha the squatters are occupying. The compensation has still to be negotiated with the government.
Last week the Constitutional Court found that the state had neglected its duty to help Duvenhage evict thousands of squatters who invaded his land five years ago. The court ordered the state to pay compensation to the farmer, previously a thriving maize producer, for damages.
The national government still appears shell-shocked by the decision, which upholds private property rights and places a clear onus on the state to remove land invaders and find alternative accommodation for them. Department of Land Affairs spokesperson Stoncey Lebethe declined to comment until Minister of Land Affairs Thoko Didiza had had an opportunity to discuss the judgement and determine the government’s position. ”It is a very sensitive matter, which the department takes seriously,” she said.
Dlamini also said far fewer then the reported number of 40 000 squatters were occupying Modder-klip. The council had bar-coded the settlement during the past year as part of its land invasion operational plan and found only 3 200 structures on the farm.
The council is responsible for providing houses for the shack dwellers, and Dlamini said the national government has approved funds for the purchase of alternative land.
One of the state’s foremost arguments in the Constitutional Court was that the Modderklip judgement could lead to ”queue-jumping” for state houses. Homeless people could see unlawful occupation as a fast way of securing a house, because the state would be responsible for finding them immediate alternative accommodation.
Incoming Chief Justice Pius Langa responded that ”the understandable desire to discourage ‘queue jumping’ does not explain or justify why Modderklip was left to carry the burden imposed on it to provide accommodation to such a large number of occupiers”.
He said the state was obliged ”progressively to ensure access to housing or land for the homeless”.
AgriSA lawyer Marietjie Jacobs, amicus curiae in the Modderklip case, said the earlier Grootboom case, which also ruled on illegal evictions, had justified queue-jumping if the community in question was in desperate need. ”Also, financing was not a problem as the Ekurhuleni Council had budgeted for an extensive housing programme. They could have delivered.”
The Gabon squatters are at the bottom of the economic pile. Rape and other crimes are common and most of the people are jobless.
The majority of the squatters were evicted from the Chris Hani informal settlement, adjacent to Modderklip farm, and about 400 then moved on to the farm.