Tshwane starts anti-land grab unit to fight illegal land invasions

The City of Tshwane has reportedly established a dedicated unit to fight off land grabs, following in the example of other metropolitan municipalities, as the city battles with a surge in the number of land grab incidents.

Pretoria News reported on Thursday that human settlements MMC Mandla Nkomo said criminal and political elements were behind an increase in land invasions in the capital, saying both public and privately owned properties across the city were targeted.

Nkomo said that, in the past year, the metro struggled with carrying out evictions where land had been illegally occupied with the help of councillors and politicians. People simply allocated land to each other and created informal settlements.

He said the worst-affected areas by land grab claims were Nellmapius, Ga-Rankuwa, Atteridgeville, Soshanguve, Fort West and Mamelodi East.

“It is more criminal incidents than anything else. There are people who say the ANC is behind it; others blame the DA, while fingers are also pointed at the EFF. The problem of land invasion in the city is out of control,” Nkomo was quoted as saying.

He said in most of the cases of land invasions the city had dealt with, they involved land that was sold or occupied without permission.

“It is not fair to be taking money from the people that way. We need to investigate who is taking money in that fashion.”

Tshwane joins City of Cape Town and eThekwini in founding anti-land grab units. However, questions have been raised about their legality, especially with regards to their adherence to constitutional property rights when evicting residents who have already occupied land.

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