The Khoisan community protested outside the Lentegeur administrative offices last week.
The protest was in response to the High Court ruling preventing further occupations on erfs 1212, 1213, 1215 and 21168, four of which are in Strandfontein and one in Khayelitsha.
The court’s ruling prohibits the group from building any more structures on the properties, but it did not give the City licence to evict.
“This order shall not be construed as an eviction order,” the ruling said. “It shall not entitle the City to demolish any occupied structures at the date of this order or to use the provisions of this order for purposes of evicting occupiers from the property.”
The City says that there are plans for 750 free housing units, a mixed-use development, sewerage infrastructure and nature reserves on the occupied land.
“Portions of these sites have been unlawfully occupied by several dozen people since 2022, and the interdict allows the City to prevent further unlawful occupation of the sites. This court protection is needed due to attempts to incite a coordinated intrusion of these sites in the past,” the City said in a statement.
READ MORE: WATCH | ‘We don’t see it as a land invasion, we see it as a land reclaiming’
Ancestral claim
The Khoisan community, however, said they have an ancestral claim to the land because evidence of two historical kraals was discovered at Strandfontein Pavilion.
Furthermore, the first respondent in the case, Michael van Rooyen, said the fight is about more than just land.
“They made the world believe that we are non-existent. Meanwhile we’ve never changed. They changed our name. You see that is what our struggle is about. We want our identity back,” he said in an interview with TygerBurger.
Memorandum
The memorandum delivered to the Lentegeur municipal offices on Friday, 7 November, stated: “We, the Strandfontein Aboriginal Khoisan Kraal, do not seek confrontation but justice, recognition and restoration. Our people have lived in harmony with this land for generations, and we remain committed to preserving its ecological and cultural integrity for future generations.
“We are open and willing to meet with City representatives to discuss this matter further and work towards a mutually respectful solution.”
A peaceful village
According to the City, the land was first occupied in 2022. Wayne Fortuin, who was named as the chief of the kraal, said the Khoisan community took over the land in 2020, after it had been abandoned. A plaque on the only brick building on the property says it was being used by the “church lads and girls”.
“They basically left and just left the property like this and then the gangsters and the druggies came and they started vandalising the house and even playing with guns and stuff,” Fortuin said. “And then we as the Khoisan, we cleared them out of the house, cleared all the rubble out of the house and we are trying to make it decent again.”
According to the court documents, the City attempted to stop the invasion of the property after it had already dismantled several structures.
Fortuin, however, claims that the City has continually tried to intimidate the roughly 20 families living on the site by dismantling their structures and by stationing law enforcement officers permanently outside the kraal.
“They have the law enforcement here day and night, 24-seven,” he said. “Those people are put there to monitor us. They’re not worried about the safety in the area. People in the communities at the back have complained about stabbings happening at the back and they tell the people they are not there for that, they are here to monitor us.”
When the TygerBurger visited the site last week, two law enforcement vans faced the property from Spine Road. Fortuin said the vans left and did not return after they were approached by media later in the week.
According to the ruling, the City’s anti-land invasion interdicts are valid and no one at the site was evicted unlawfully. It furthermore stated that the City had “showed reasonable threat of harm” and “demonstrated no alternative remedies available”.
Fortuin disputes this. He said the kraal is a “peaceful” village.
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