Update
MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The Mossel Bay Municipality says it has acted preventatively to protect undeveloped municipal land by obtaining High Court interdicts where possible.
This follows a visit by the Red Ants this week.
Municipal spokesperson Nickey le Roux says the municipality must act per prescribed legislation.
Land occupation is dealt with in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act No. 19 of 1998.
As soon as a structure is established, the municipality must bring a court application to obtain an eviction order.
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Le Roux says regulation 54 of the Covid-19 regulations, issued in terms of Section 27 (2) of the Disaster Management Act, Act 57 of 2002, makes it difficult to obtain eviction orders, and existing orders are often suspended by the courts until after the expiration of the national disaster condition, or deletion of the current regulation.
"Unfortunately, all the preventative action comes at a considerable cost. Money spent to curb the illegal activity could instead have been used much more effectively for infrastructure development and service delivery," says Mossel Bay acting mayor, Dirk Kotzé.
"We call on community leaders, especially in the faith community and educators, to assist in maintaining an orderly community, for the benefit of all our residents," says Le Roux.
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