As occupations accelerate, South African landowners fear for their property

WALKERVILLE – In an abandoned private farm south of Johannesburg, the sound of hammers striking nails against corrugated iron, brooms sweeping through dust and a low chatter of voices can be heard on a nearby road.

It’s the sound of dozens of shacks being hastily built in the town of Walkerville in Midvaal, a semi-rural agricultural area in South Africa, where rising demand for land and housing is driving a wave of similar occupations.

“We are here to build ourselves a new home and a new life,” said Tantaswa, 37, who did not want her real name used for fear of being evicted.

Tantaswa said he bought the parcel and construction materials for R2,800 on Facebook, but did not receive any title deeds or know anything about the seller or owner of the vacant property.

“It is a risk to build here, but we have to take it because we are suffering in the nearby municipality,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, while sweeping the dust with his daughter outside their newly built hut.

The land was previously occupied by the now-late farmer Richard Makhetha, who invested in its upkeep, and his widow said he was seeking advice from the Department of Agriculture on what to do about the occupations.

In June, Walkerville became a hotspot for land occupations on unused private property, led by a group of local men calling themselves The Big Six.

In other parts of South Africa, land occupations have accelerated during the coronavirus shutdown, often ending in shack demolitions or evictions by authorities despite a directive that municipalities must suspend evictions during the pandemic.

Housing rights advocates said that many poor renters have been unable to work or pay rent in a country where affordable housing is scarce.

But Midvaal Mayor Bongani Baloyi said the occupations “aren’t about housing problems, it’s about crime,” referring to groups like The Big Six or Facebook land sellers.

“For me, this is a simple legal problem. The law says that we must protect private property, and that is what we will continue to do, ”he said in a telephone interview.

‘Earth grabbers’

After twenty-six years of democracy after the end of apartheid, land ownership remains a thorny issue in South Africa, which is one of the most unequal countries in the world, according to the World Bank.

President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a campaign in 2018 to change the constitution and make an explicit provision for redistribution of land without payment to address inequality.

According to the most recent census figures, at least 2.9 million to 3.6 million people live in informal settlements in South Africa, although experts say the actual number is likely much higher.

People like Tantaswa say they are tired of waiting decades for government-assisted housing.

“We struggle with space, electricity and security in the Orange Farm Township where we live,” said Tantaswa, who hopes the new settlement that is taking shape will be less crowded and more secure.

Alongside his new house, other huts are being put together, many with names spray-painted on the corrugated iron walls, reserving them for the next few weeks when its four rudimentary walls are topped with roofs and inhabitants.

Lethu Masoka, one of the leaders of the group The Big Six, said that they were not “land grabbers”, but people “willing to buy empty land and use it as housing.”

During its last occupation in the Midvaal suburb of Elandsfontein, the municipality intervened with a court injunction and removed the occupants with the help of the police.

Masoka said the group had received “donations” of 250 rand from hundreds of people who participated in the occupation, using the money to cover the cost of security, gasoline and the demarcation of future plots on various private farms.

“We want to negotiate with the owners and the government. This land is not being used, we want to buy this land for agriculture and housing, ”Masoka said in a telephone interview.

The owners reported having been attacked and threatened by the occupants during the June invasion.

‘WILD WEST’

Walkerville property owner and Member of Parliament Dennis Ryder said that despite his frustrations with the occupations, he believed many of the occupants were “desperate” people who were being exploited by illegal land sellers.

He said there were no quick fixes to Midvaal’s land problems.

“Wherever you scratch, it becomes more complex. It’s like the Wild West here, ”he said, from his home he moved to 20 years ago on the quiet, open land large enough to raise horses.

Midvaal, which is about 50 km from Johannesburg, is the subject of a 1995 land claim by the Bakwena Ba Mare community to Phogole, which says the area is their ancestral land from which they were evicted during the colonial period.

His claim was announced to the public in 2016 by the Land Claims Commission “with much anticipation and celebration by Bakwena Ba Mare a Phogole,” according to its website.

But Hanif Manjoo, founder of the indigenous Khoisan Unity Movement, said Midvaal also housed ancient Khoisan artifacts.

“According to our beliefs, the land does not belong to us, we belong to the land,” Manjoo said at his daughter’s home in southern Johannesburg, adding that he hoped a consensus would be possible between the different communities in the area.

“Sadly, we have a very morbid history that divided people according to race, language and religion,” Manjoo said, referring to Dutch and British colonization, followed by years of apartheid racial segregation that ended in the early 1990s. .

When Ryder bought his property two decades ago, he couldn’t see it becoming a flash point for his nation’s tensions over land.

But today, the competing claims on Midvaal mean that residents who want to sell or renovate their properties “do so at their own risk,” he said, as property values ​​and ownership could be challenged at any time.

“One thing is certain, when their land is threatened, people get excited.”