Police clash with ‘Khoi settlers’, N2 blocked with burning bushes

Western Cape police on Wednesday clashed with residents of an illegal land occupation outside Grabouw, where hundreds of bungalows and shacks have sprung up on former state forest land owned by the public works department. 

The standoff began on Tuesday, allegedly prompted by attempts to remove some of the structures.

Video footage circulating on social media showed police in a heated standoff with residents who barricaded the main road into the settlement now known as Knoflokskraal.

Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said law enforcement and public order police were deployed on Tuesday. 

“According to reports, approximately 150 disgruntled community members became riotous and pelted the members with stones, closing the N2 highway with burning bushes,” Swartbooi said.

“The police responded to restore calm for the safety of the officers. One male who sustained injuries was transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.”

Residents took to Facebook to express outrage at the police deployment, which continued on Wednesday.

“The police and law enforcement just knocked my father Boeta Boeba over, he is lying in the road,” said Zubeida Arendse from Mitchells Plain on the Grabouw Knoflokskraal Facebook page set up as a forum for the land occupiers to share information.

“He is an elderly man with six screws in his back, a hip replacement, and a stent in his main artery. All because he is trying to save your structures from being demolished. He is trying to save Knoflokskraal.”

Knoflokskraal is home to as many as 3,000 people who started moving into the area from November 2020, initially as part of a Khoi land protest led by a traditional group based in the Overberg.

The occupation has attracted other land claimant groupings, resulting in disagreement between rival groups and between occupiers and government authorities. 

The public works department obtained a court order last year preventing further expansion of the settlement, but authorities have battled to stop newcomers moving in.

Residents say the influx is due largely to the slow pace of land reform, particularly for Khoi descendants who feel marginalised by the government’s empowerment and land restitution programmes. However, government officials say the land invaders are breaking the law.  

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