Police move swiftly against land invaders

Police moved swiftly early on Thursday and arrested almost 200 people in Gauteng province for trespassing on land they believed they had bought from opposition Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) officials. The land, distributed by the officials to hundreds of squatters for a fee of about US $3, was owned by a government agency, two farmers and two state-owned utility companies, according to news reports. Thousands of people had been lining up since last week to “buy” parcels of the 32,000-hectare plot near Kempton Park, northeast of Johannesburg. Many who paid their money had begun building their shacks by the time the police swooped on them.

The arrests came after some of the land owners lodged a formal complaint.
Hundreds of people remained on the land on Thursday night, while police remained on guard. More arrests were expected. A hearing for a formal eviction order against the squatters was scheduled for Friday in the Pretoria High Court. “Our case is watertight,” Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza was quoted saying.

A Reuters report quoted the minister saying that the government would not accept such behaviour. “This cannot be tolerated...it would send a message that South Africa is allowing land invasions,” she was quoted saying. “The situation is tense. There is a combination of the anger of being misled and frustration that what they had been given isn’t lawful,” Didiza said. According to the report, many of the squatters expressed frustration with the slow pace of delivery by the government and praised the PAC.