Cape Town officials link illegal land occupation to crime hotspots as PIE Act review urged

Law enforcement chiefs in the Western Cape are zeroing in on illegal land invasions, which they claim are driving the crime crisis in Cape Town, Cape Argus reports.

City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith made the remarks as LEAP officers teamed up with the South African Police Service in an inspection of informal settlements in Nyanga and Philippi. Smith was joined by police provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Sizakhele Dyantyi, Premier Alan Winde and MEC for Community Safety Anroux Marais, where informal structures were built on railway tracks on land owned by PRASA.

In a Facebook post, Smith said law enforcement was making an impact on fighting crime, noting that LEAP officers are now deployed in 70 areas and that the trend over the last few years shows a 12.7 percent reduction in the murder rate in Nyanga. He added, however, that according to Commissioner Dyantyi, illegal land occupation was one of the root causes of criminal activity, and that the epicentre of the problem now sits in the illegal land invasion on the railway lines in Philippi.

"This creates a completely unpolicable environment... you cannot expect a metro police or law enforcement or SAPS vehicle to effectively patrol and not to be outmanoeuvred by criminals," Smith said. He said the City and the Western Cape Government will push for amendments to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998, arguing that the second part of the Act has "no teeth" and that there is no effective means for private and public landowners to protect their land. Previous attempts to amend the law never made it through Parliament, he said, and changes currently being considered are "somewhat watered down" and will not give all the relief needed.

The PIE Act prevents arbitrary evictions and sets fair legal procedures for removing unlawful occupiers from residential properties.