The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has lodged an urgent application to declare that Rural Development and Land Reforms Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, is in contempt of a court order, says a Cape Times report.

The LRC is representing the Association for Rural Advancement (Afra) on behalf of 19 000 land claimants who argue that Nkwinti was negotiating in ‘bad faith’ to conclude a memorandum of understanding. They argued that Nkwinti failed to comply with a settlement which was made a court order by Land Claims Court Judge Seena Yacoob in May. The order stated that the parties shall negotiate in good faith in order to finalise the memorandum of understating.

The application was brought to interdict Nkwinti from claiming to have complied with the order or to claim that any future conduct was taken in terms of the court order. The action related to an ongoing case before the Land Claims Court between labour tenant Bhekidlela Mwelese, Afra, the department’s DG and Nkwinti. The applicants are challenging the department for failing to process thousands of land claims applications made by labour tenants under the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act.

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