Judge orders department to draft resolution in eviction case
The Western Cape High Court has postponed the hearing on the eviction of 76 families from a state-owned farm outside Stellenbosch, at the request of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development, according to a West Cape News report on the GroundUp site.
The department's Deputy Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha allowed the families to move onto the state-owned Mesco farm after they had been living in the open when they were evicted from the Klein Akker farm in Kraaifontein on 19 August.
Both the City of Cape Town, in whose jurisdiction Klein Akker falls, and the Stellenbosch Municipality within whose boundaries they are now accommodated, are denying responsibility to provide temporary, or emergency, housing for them should the eviction application before the court be successful.
The city offered the evicted families land in Philippi, some 30km away but this was rejected by the families.
Now Ricmal Green (Pty) Ltd, which signed a lease agreement for the Mesco farm with the department in November 2018, is applying to the High Court to evict the families once again.
Ricmal Green, together with shareholders Mesco Farm Workers Primary Cooperative, aim to farm the land on a commercial basis.
In its heads of argument for the eviction application, which was brought before the court as urgent, Ricmal Green, says no temporary accommodation needs to be provided to the evictees under the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE Act) as they have been living on the property for less than six months.
However, Advocate Michael Tsele, for the occupying families, argues the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) and not the PIE Act applies in this case, says the GroundUp report.
Tsele argues that ESTA applies to rural land which the occupiers have permission, in this case from Skwatsha, to occupy.
The argument over PIE versus ESTA essentially rests on this question of permission, and Ricmal Green's argument is void, he says, because it is based on the wrong Act.
The City is one of 11 respondents in the case, along with the occupiers, Stellenbosch Municipality, Winelands District Municipality, and the department.
Counsel for the department Zeynab Titus said it was in the interests of justice that an 'appropriate solution' for the long term accommodation of the families was reached, and the various government departments were committed to the process.
Judge Lister Nuku ordered the department to draft a framework for a resolution process and send it to him, and set the last week of March for hearing the eviction application.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
