Evictions in rural areas ‘remain a problem’
The Rural Legal Trust said it is handling many cases of land occupants who are being forcefully removed, claiming that this is a human rights violation.
The Rural Legal Trust (RLT) has said that the forceful removal of land occupants by their landlords is a human rights violation.
According to Thati Khunou, an RLT representative and Moses Sekobane, the Gauteng coordinator of the RLT, they are currently handling many such cases.
“There are important procedural steps that are being neglected.
The livelihood of those who live on the farms are at risk,” he said.
Sekobane added when farmers no longer want tenants on their properties, they often harass and threaten them, adding that some go so far as disconnecting their electricity.
He said when trying to intervene, many farm owners do not comply with their requests to not carry out the illegal eviction, but continue to harass their tenants, which leaves the organisation with no other option but take them to the Constitutional Court.
“Even when we do that, most of our clients continue to be threatened on a daily basis. One of the challenges we have is that tenants end up being scared for their lives,” Sekobone said.
He said the Extension of Security Tenure Act 62 of 1997, which was signed and approved in Parliament in 1997, was implemented to protect both the landowner/ landlord and tenants.
The Act stipulates that if a land occupant has been living on farm for as long as 10 years and there was consent from the land owner, it means that they are long-term occupants, more especially when they have done some service or work on the property.
“The Act also stipulates that no one should be evicted without a court order, or without doing anything wrong,” Sekobane added.
However, Khunou said landowners are ignoring these pieces of legislation.
“They continue to take advantage of the occupants because they do not think they can defend themselves legally, or simply because they are uneducated.”
She also said the desperate tenants themselves do not know where to go when they find themselves in such situations.
“This is why when you drive around you will see many shacks erected, because they have been evicted illegally, and now they’re trying to rebuild their lives,” Khunou said.
