Land invasions threaten the very fabric of our Cities
2 October 2022
Note to editors: Please find pictures here and here.
Friday, 30 September 2022, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, Emma Powell, together with the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Members (MMC’s) for Safety and Security, Jean-Pierre Smith, and Human Settlements, Malusi Booi conducted an oversight visit to District Six to observed the scale of the most recent land invasion at this historic site.
The issue of orchestrated and illegal land grabs has become a crisis across South Africa, placing immense financial burdens on all major Metropolitan Municipalities and thousands of private land and property owners.
While land invasions have been a problem for many years, the start of the Covid-19 lockdown vastly accelerated the crisis, with an estimated R2.5 billion worth of property subsequently lost to invasions in Cape Town alone.