Our favourite red-beret-wearing, statue-trashing political party has warned Cape Town of upcoming land grabs. If there is any merit to what they are warning, here is what you need to know.
Yesterday a mass land invasion took place in Khayelitsha, during which hundreds occupied vacant land, laying claim to privately owned property.
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#LandInvasion Hundreds illegally invade vacant, but privately owned, property in Khayelitsha. SS @4everSiya pic.twitter.com/weSj0rXPuL
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) April 7, 2015
So what does this ‘occupation’ mean exactly? In this context, it is the act of invading land for the purpose of residency. Areas such as Camps Bay, Bishopscourt and Rondebosch Common have been threatened with upcoming invasions by EFF-supporting, backyard dwellers.
How a political party (that wants to be taken seriously) can condone such acts is laughable.
Nazier Paulsen, Western Cape representative of the EFF, was quoted saying, ‘I did just what Jan van Riebeeck did – he invaded the land, I occupied it’.
Well, that was over 350 years ago and the world, along with its laws, has changed. Look what happened to Germany and their land invasions of last century – ultimately it didn’t work out too well for them. We simply cannot compare an act hundreds of years old to justify a cause – there are civil ways and means of reaching a compromise in this situation. A lot of bad things have happened in our civilisation’s history but instead of pursuing an ‘eye for eye’ mentality, we should learn from mistakes and move forward.
The impoverished backyard dwellers desperately need land and there is undoubtedly enough land in the Western Cape to be given. WesCape anyone?
Photography EWN
