Government turns to Western Cape High Court to halt illegal occupation of Grabouw state land

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson says the government will approach the Western Cape High Court on October 19 to stop further occupation and construction on state-owned land at Knoflokskraal, near Grabouw in the Western Cape, while establishing who lives on the site.

Briefing the media on Monday, Macpherson said the application followed six months of preparation, investigation and unsuccessful efforts to reach an agreement with people living at the settlement. The government has prepared an affidavit of more than 1,000 pages detailing the history of the occupation, previous court orders, engagement processes and evidence gathered during its investigations.

The application will be brought in two parts. Part A will seek an order authorising substituted service, allowing the government to notify affected people through alternative methods and give them a reasonable opportunity to participate. The main application, Part B, will seek four measures: containment of the occupation, enumeration of residents, an order prohibiting unlawful conduct and police assistance with enforcing the court directives.

"And I want to be absolutely clear: containment is not eviction. It is about freezing the situation to prevent it from deteriorating further," Macpherson said. The proposed containment order would prevent new occupations across the six properties, further construction, the movement of building materials onto the site for new structures, and the unlawful sale or allocation of state land.

Knoflokskraal comprises six state-owned farms covering approximately 2,000 hectares in the Elgin Valley near Grabouw, under the custodianship of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and historically intended for forestry, job creation and economic development. The occupation began during the Covid-19 lockdown in late 2020, with structures rising from about 382 in May 2021 to roughly 3,800 by February 2022 and about 4,880 by August that year, according to the minister.

Macpherson said engagement with community leadership produced a formal meeting on October 24, 2025 at which parties agreed containment was non-negotiable, and an in-principle Social Compact Agreement in December 2025 that was ultimately rejected amid disagreements between competing community groupings. He said the government intends the substantive application to be heard by a full bench in February 2027 or on terms set by the court, giving affected residents time to consider the papers and secure legal representation.