Cobus Coetzee
RURAL Development and Land Reform Deputy Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha called for a moratorium on farm evictions and said the government was concerned about an increase, particularly in the Cape Winelands and the Western Cape.
Skwatsha was speaking at the Western Cape Land Reform Summit in Stellenbosch yesterday.
“We are calling for a moratorium on evictions,” he said.
In the past five months, 247 farm evictions in the Western Cape were reported to the department. They included legal and illegal evictions.
Skwatsha said he believed there should be no farm evictions, of farmworkers or families living on farms.
In the Western Cape there were 163 evictions in the Cape Winelands, 28 in the West Coast District, 22 in the Overberg and 10 in the Eden District. There were 24 in the City of Cape Town, he added.
These did not reflect the evictions not reported, he said.
“Although some of the evictions go through the courts, the proper legal process of serving a legal notice to the department about the eviction is not followed,” he said.
Skwatsha said not all farmers were involved in evicting people, but he had to mention these incidents because “it could not be accepted”.
“If we continue to justify evictions as a response to the uncertainty in policy, we are not acting in the spirit of the times. To do so would be to act in bad faith and show a lack of commitment to the land reform process.”
He said there were also a high number of evictions in the Free State.
Carl Opperman, chief executive at Agri WesCape, said they were not aware of any illegal farm evictions in the Western Cape.
“I know legal evictions are taking place. They went through the courts and others were taken for review, but all were according to the law.”