Evictions: ‘Some people are above the law’

The Mokwalakwala case raises key issues about the security of tenure of farm dwellers. In 2005, the Social Surveys and Nkuzi Development Association said in a report commissioned by the parliamentary portfolio committee for agriculture and land affairs that one million people had been evicted from farms since 1994.

There are no reliable numbers; this survey, with the estimate by nongovernmental organisations of a total of two million people evicted, has been disputed by farmer organisations.

Last year, the minister of rural development and land reform, Maite Nkoana Mashabane, said it was “shocking that, in 2018, 24 years after we achieved democracy, illegal evictions and human rights abuses on farms still persist. It has recently come to my attention that, in some parts of the country, people face the indignity of not being able to bury their loved ones on land they have resided on for most of their lives.”

Limpopo-based land rights activist Vasco Mabunda says the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (Esta), which protects the tenure of farm dwellers, is still not being followed and implemented by landowners and government agencies.

He also cites the issue of power relations, noted in a 2003 South African Human Rights Commission report, as a contributing factor in the issue of illegal evictions.

The report found that farm dwellers, the majority of whom are black and poor, are at a disadvantage with regard to access to legal services compared with landowners, the majority of whom are white and rich.

Mabunda cited the Mokwalakwala case as a classic example of this situation.

“It shows that some people are above the law and untouchable. Here’s a man who demolished houses of poor people, some of them very old people, and there are no consequences,” he says.

Esta criminalises the illegal eviction of tenants without a valid court order or following the required procedure.

In 2008, the Human Rights Commission found in its report into land tenure rights on farms that there had been very little progress towards achieving security of tenure for farm dwellers and labour tenants. The report also found that progress against the recommendations of the 2003 report had not been effectively monitored and communicated.

The 2003 report noted the failure by government agencies, such as the police, to protect the rights of farm dwellers. It also noted that government employees, such as police and social workers, struggled to get access to farms and that farm dwellers do not have easy access to government departments and lack knowledge about the workings of the law.

Mabunda cites police complicity in such cases as one of the contributing factors. He asks why, if Michael Toulou didn’t have a valid court order, police presided over the demolition of the Mokwalakwala residents’ homes.

It is understood that the police presence during the demolition of the properties forms part of the SAHRC probe. — Lucas Ledwaba