Land department hell-bent on evicting Moos

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is still trying to evict emerging farmer Veronica Moos from her farm in eastern Gauteng, despite being ordered by the North Gauteng High Court last month to restore the property to her. Their application to evict, under the controversial “use it or lose it” policy, will be back in court on 18 June.
“She will then get the opportunity to file opposing papers,” said the department’s spokesperson Eddie Mohoebi.
He said the court previously found the department had treated Moos unfairly by failing to follow procedure, but without ruling on the merits of her eviction.
“There are clear conditions for leasing state property, including not being an absentee landlord, not sub-leasing the property and using it productively,” he said. “She is still in breach of these conditions.” He conceded the move could open the department to protracted litigation.
Moos’s lawyer, Louise du Plessis, of Lawyers for Human Rights, said the move would trigger a counter application against the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS).
Court papers show Moos tried on several occasions to get the department to honour post-settlement support promises and supply her with a valid lease. She was allocated the farm under PLAS, which was introduced to speed up land reform.
Under it the government buys farms aggressively on the open market and leases them to beneficiaries. Leases can be terminated if the land is under utilised. But, the strategy has accelerated the failure rate as new farmers can’t obtain production credit because they lack secure title, remaining dependent on state support.
Moos said she hadn’t been informed of the decision to evict her and was going ahead with plans to make the farm productive. “I don’t know why they’re doing this,” she said.
“I’m in discussions with Agri Gauteng which is to be appointed as a mentor. We’re looking at securing production credit from an agricultural co-op. It’s very upsetting. – Stephan Hofstätter