AfriForum started legal proceedings against the SAPS to recover costs and expenses related to an urgent eviction application in 2018 after the SAPS had refused to act during a land invasion close to Onderstepoort in Pretoria.
In August last year, the SAPS refused to assist Dr Motodi Maserumule and arrest trespassers who had invaded his land illegally and had started to build structures.
Maserumule approached AfriForum, and the civil rights organisation then obtained an urgent court order that ordered the eviction of the trespassers and the SAPS to assist the sheriff with these evictions. A mandate was then given to the Red Ants by AfriForum and Dr Maserumule to remove the trespassers’ structures. The costs amounted to R600 000, however, and this is the amount that AfriForum wants the SAPS to pay up.
AfriForum makes use of established litigation tools to hold the SAPS and its individual members accountable for their negligence.
“AfriForum will continue to take the necessary steps to compel law enforcement authorities and other bodies and persons who tolerate land invasion and neglect their responsibilities to observe their mandates, as well as to compensate aggrieved parties for costs that could have been prevented,” says Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s Head of Community Safety.
As soon as the legal costs have been recovered, AfriForum will utilise these to fight land invasion.
“We have to increasingly take these steps to ensure that the relevant authorities are held personally responsible whenever they fail in their duties,” concludes Marnus Kamfer, AfriForum’s Legal and Risk Manager.