The Rustenburg Local Municipality is aware of the land invasion that has occurred at portion 1 of the farm Rietvlei 271, Rustenburg, and is dealing with the situation as follows:
The Municipality has since applied to the High Court in Mahikeng and subsequently obtaining it, with the objective to evicting invaders. In order to enforce the court order obtained on the 14th May 2018, the Municipality requested assistance from the South African Police Service. This request was not successful as senior management of SAPS responded that they were unable to help, as they first had to seek legal opinion from their Legal Advisors.
The Municipality is of the opinion that the court eviction order is clear and unambiguous, that the South African Police Service, as the 6th respondent on the matter, of their role in helping the Municipality to enforce the order. Failure to act urgently will intensify unlawful invasion. On the 16th September 2021, the Municipality reported the intensifying land invasion at Rietvlei at Phokeng police station resulting in opening of the case ( Case No. CAS150/9/2021).
The issue has since been escalated to the North West provincial office of SAPS, which they acknowledged receipt of and agreed that the matter needs urgent attention. The Municipality is currently awaiting response from the provincial SAPS office, moving forward.
We are however positive that provincial SAPS will respond positively, sooner, so that land invasion at Rietvlei is permanently dealt with decisively.
End.
Issued by the Communications Unit
Rustenburg Local Municipality
