Law for dwellers

THE MINISTER of Rural Development and Land Reform has published Amendments to the Regulations under the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 1997 (“ESTA”), adjusting the qualifying income for protection under the extension for people living in rural and peri-urban land that they do not own.

Persons earning an income of R13 625 a month, and who live in rural and peri-urban land they do not own, will now qualify for protection under the ESTA legislation. The previous qualifying income was R5 000 a month.

The Act regulates the relationship between the people that live on land they do not own, but with the consent (express or tacit) of the owner or person in charge of the farm. The Act places substantive rights and responsibilities on both parties, sets out processes of eviction, and more importantly, provides instruments to enable government to provide long-term security of tenure to those who live on farms and peri-urban land they do not own.

ESTA only applies and protects people defined as “occupiers”, those people who live on land which belongs to another person and who have the consent of the owner or person in charge, or another right in law to do so.

Excluded from being an occupier are people who use the land for industrial, mining, or commercial purposes, and those who have an income above the amount prescribed by the minister.

An estimated 3 million people that live on farms that they do not own are among the poorest and most vulnerable in South Africa.

Their land tenure, more often than not, is insecure and they mostly do not have access to basic services provided by the government because of their geographical isolation, and in some instances, because the owners of the land they reside on refuse to consent to the government providing them with services.

TSHEPO DIALE Nkwe Estate