Farmers who evict tenant workers illegally will have their land expropriated, Deputy Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Dirk du Toit warned on Wednesday.
”Those people who don’t want to hear, we are not only going to take them to court, we are going to also take their land away from them,” he told MPs in the National Assembly.
Responding to a question, he described the eviction of farm workers as a ”medieval practice that just continues and continues”.
Du Toit noted farm workers enjoy protection in terms of two pieces of legislation — the Extension of Security Act and the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act.
”However, I actually want to tell you today there are three pieces of legislation … a third one I think we should start using for the purpose of working against these evictions.”
This is the Provision of Land and Assistance Act, in terms of which the agriculture and land affairs minister can expropriate land.
”I believe the ultimate answer in problematic instances … we start using this Act … which says … the minister, for securing land tenure rights, may designate certain land and expropriate it.”
Du Toit said he believes if this was done, farm evictions would ”stop in mid-air”.
The time has come for serious action against offending farmers. ”We have to act seriously now, we shouldn’t just play it softly any more … We must now start acting in a determined fashion.
”To those [farmers] who are trying to dump people off their ground, we must send a message. And the only way they will understand is when the land is affected, and it will stop.”
Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana has called repeatedly for farm evictions to end. ”If a thing that must end doesn’t end, then you must act as a responsible government and have it done,” Du Toit said. — Sapa