As former agriculture and land reform minister and recently elected National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza faces possible jail time In a David v Goliath court battle, three sheep farmers – Johannes Bezuidenhout, Herold Bezuidenhout and Jan Berg – represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), hauled the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to court after it had not complied with a March court order in which the farmers were to be restored undisturbed possession of two farms. In the latest development, Acting Judge Safia Mahomed, in the Western Cape High Court, ordered 30 days of imprisonment for department respondents who failed to comply with the court order.
Responding to enquiries, Didiza said: “Once I study the judgment and its implications, I will advise accordingly.”
LRC attorney Wilmien Wicomb said the department, by ignoring a court order, acted in bad faith.
“Decisions made by the department when allocating state land are almost never challenged, because information about these decisions can almost never be obtained.
“The determination of these three land reform beneficiaries from Beaufort West to hold the department to account, despite every effort made by the department to keep their actions secret, has exposed how little regard the department had for complying with their own policies even when a court orders them to comply.
“No court provides for the possibility of imprisonment of a minister or officials without clear evidence of malicious non-compliance with the law.”
On March 4, Judge Gayaat Salie found that the minister and her departmental officials had unlawfully deprived the farmers of possession of Plateau farms by placing two former land reform beneficiaries on the farm where the sheep farmers have been farming since 2017.
Despite repeated requests, the minister and the department had not taken steps to restore possession to the farmers, leading them to seek contempt and jail time.
The department, however, said it noted and “refuted the incorrect” media reports about the judgment.
“The department is studying the judgment of the high court and will respond to the public in due course.
“It should be noted that the incoming minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development will provide further guidance on the final resolution of this matter as the term of office of the former minister has ended,” a department statement read.
Judge Mahomed said the department’s conduct by failing to comply “flies in the face” of the March court order.
“The department is the rightful owner of Dassiesfontein and Dassies 2 and it was the departmental respondents who gave the fifth and sixth respondents consent to occupy these farms and yet they submitted that nothing was expected of them in terms of paragraph (i) of the March court order.
“The conduct of the departmental respondents after the March court order, on their own version, is demonstrative of wilfulness and mala fides on their part.
“Their attempt to distance themselves from the unlawful conduct of the fifth and sixth respondents by their continued occupation of Dassiesfontein and Dassies 2 … also speaks directly to wilfulness and mala fides on the part of the departmental respondents.
“The departmental respondents had a legal responsibility to comply with the March court order and reverse their actions that took place on 17 January and 7 February 2024. They did not do so,” said Judge Mahomed.
Earlier this year, the department was interdicted from allocating portions of a Beaufort West farm to any other person pending the approval of a 30-year farming lease the farmers are to be granted.
Cape Times
