LAND OCCUPATION
Malema asks high court to decriminalise trespassing
The EFF wants trespassing to be decriminalised — and the removal of alleged illegal land occupiers to first be sanctioned by the courts — not immediately carried out by the police. "It is wrong to criminalise land occupation. It is also racist to do so, because the majority of occupiers are black," advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi argued on behalf of the EFF on Wednesday in the High Court in Pretoria. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) maintains that trespassing is a crime in every legal system in the world, and argues that expecting people whose properties have been invaded to then seek the eviction of the occupants in court would lead to chaos, and result in protracted and expensive legal battles. The NPA further argues that using laws such as the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act as a basis to govern the evictions of unlawful occupants would provide no legal protection to land owners before their property was invaded. Three judges, including deputy judge president Aubrey Ledw...
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