The call for land invasions in Hout Bay by the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (Cosatu) Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, is irresponsible, illegal and a red flag to investors, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Monday.
The DA-led coalition running the City of Cape Town will do everything possible to stop any illegal action stemming from the call, he said in a statement.
Ehrenreich, who maintains there is a ”battle unfolding” in Hout Bay, an outlying suburb on the Cape Peninsula, has said poor black residents of the area will take land and divide it among themselves if their demands for more ground are not met.
Leon said Ehrenreich’s call was ”an incitement to break the law, and shows scant regard for the rule of law”. He called on the African National Congress and Cosatu to distance themselves from it.
”One wonders if Mr Ehrenreich would be so quick to call for land invasions in the suburb where he lives, if he were then personally to feel the catastrophic effect this would have on property prices, home ownership and the constitutional right to peaceful possession.
”Mr Ehrenreich’s call is a red flag to investors and, if left uncensored by the ministers of housing and safety and security, could do irreparable harm to South Africa’s international standing.
”We simply cannot afford for irresponsible statements of this kind to be made when it is clear to all that there is a need for stability and order in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup.”
Ehrenreich, he said, is ”on the wrong side of the law and on the wrong side of the state-sanctioned, orderly land-reform process”. — Sapa