S. African court orders eviction of squatters

PRETORIA, JULY 10. A judge today gave the South African Government the go-ahead to evict hundreds of squatters occupying land near Johannesburg. Judge Carel Rabie said in making his decision he had considered the effects of the violent seizure of white-owned farm land in neighbouring Zimbabwe on that country's economy.

The attempt by poverty-stricken black South Africans to set up shacks on the Government- and privately-held piece of land has raised fears that the land grab in Zimbabwe could be repeated in South Africa.

``Within 48 hours the Sheriff is duly authorised to remove shacks,'' Mr. Rabie told a packed courtroom. He refused the squatters leave to appeal against the eviction order.

Mr. Rabie said the safety of the squatters - who have occupied the dusty field northeast of Johannesburg since last week - was also at risk from an underground fuel pipeline, overhead power cables and a nearby railway line which has had its fences stolen.

Lawyers said the case would be heard again later this month, when the court will decide whether to make Mr. Rabie's interim order final or not.

Mr. Rabie said the speed with which the squatters had moved on to the land implied that they had come from nearby and could return there.

The opposition Pan Africanist Congress Party, which orchestrated the land invasion, said it was reviewing the judgment.

``We expected that ruling. It does not come as a surprise. We will have to sit down and meet to see what our next step will be,'' the PAC's legal secretary, Mr. Mogole Mphahlele, told Reuters at the court.

A young man sitting outside his shack, who heard news of the judgment on his radio, said he would not move. ``It's unacceptable. How could a court come up with a decision like that without finding us somewhere else to stay?'' ``Where will I go? They should give us a place to stay,'' said Mr. Mzwakhe Mthethwa, an unemployed man.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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