Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Eviction order for Khoisan in village hall
A GROUP of Khoisan activists who occupied the community hall at the Oude Molen EcoVillage in Pinelands a week ago have been served with an eviction application, but they’ve vowed to fight back and to seek the intervention of the Human Rights Commission.
The papers are part of a Western Cape High Court application by Transport and Public Works MEC Donald Grant and Quay Property Services CC, which deals with the administration of Oude Molen. They have asked the provincial Social Development Department to urgently investigate and report on the circumstances of the children in the group, to determine whether they had been exposed to circumstances which could harm their physical, mental or social wellbeing, and whether they should be placed in foster care.
Grant and Quay Property Services obtained a court order on Thursday allowing them to serve the application on the group. This was served in terms of a notice board at the entrances to the premises and the hall, and by reading it out over a loudhailer.
In an affidavit before the court Johan Stassen, who is charged with the administration of Oude Molen, said the occupation of the hall was well-orchestrated.
He went to the hall within 45 minutes of the group’s arrival and “found the situa- tion out of control and extremely hostile”, he said.
“The situation was volatile and I was afraid that it might devolve into riotous behaviour. In an attempt to create a calm and stable situation, I requested the police, security, some tenants and the community to leave the hall so that I could address the group of persons who were apparently the leaders of the group, to whom I refer herein as ‘the chiefs’. The chiefs, who included Tania Kleinhans and Cornelius de Kock, were extremely argumentative, aggressive and confrontational,” he said.
Stassen said he told the group that they had occupied the hall illegally, and asked them to leave.
However, he said the chiefs responded that the Khoisan claimed the land because it was stolen from them.
They claimed to have permission from then Transport and Public Works MEC Robin Carlisle – a claim Carlisle denied in a separate affidavit.
Stassen added that his assessment of the situation was that the group was intent on creating conflict and violence in order to draw media attention to further a political agenda.
It was decided not to proceed with eviction that weekend because there were toddlers in the hall, and the provincial government should first be consulted.
Stassen said he believed the occupants were not homeless because security guards told him some of them left regularly to eat, bath and change clothes at home.
Speaking to the Weekend Argus yesterday, group chief Kleinhans said they were still in the derelict hall, and were not paying any attention to the notice.
“We will fight it at the High Court. The state has no intention of giving the Khoisan their land back.
“We never challenged land on the Atlantic Seaboard or national investments, and we just want what is ours. The evil of the provincial and national government towards the aboriginals is inexcusable.”