Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson says government will restore the rule of law at Knoflokskraal, addressing unlawful occupation, criminality, and threats, while ensuring lawful, evidence-based, and constitutionally defensible interventions.
Image: file
The Public Works and Infrastructure Minister, Dean Macpherson, has said the government will take decisive action to restore the rule of law at Knoflokskraal in the Elgin Valley near Grabouw, Western Cape.
Macpherson described the occupation as serious, entrenched, and unsustainable, warning that the site had effectively become a parallel settlement operating outside lawful governance.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, he said the unlawful occupation of state-owned land, which began in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, had expanded from a small initial group into a settlement of about 4,000 structures, housing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people.
He said the occupation was led by political groupings ahead of the 2021 local government elections and had continued to grow despite repeated engagement by the government over successive administrations.
“The rule of law must be restored. The history and build-up to the current crisis is as follows,” Macpherson said.
He explained that the land, covering roughly 1,800 hectares, had originally been earmarked by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment for forestry purposes, but was never developed for that use.
Containment orders were granted by the Western Cape High Court in 2021 for three of the six farms that make up Knoflokskraal, but Macpherson said they were not consistently enforced.
“The legal authority existed, but the sustained implementation and political will to deal with this did not,” he said, adding that repeated engagement with community and leadership structures failed to produce concrete outcomes, allowing the occupation to deepen.
By 2022 and 2023, he said, the settlement had caused significant damage to land earmarked for forestry, leaving some areas unsalvageable for future use.
Macpherson said poor coordination between the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, COGTA, SAPS, and local government meant no single authority drove accountability.
He added that municipal services had come under strain, costing the Theewaterskloof Municipality about R11 million a year, while distrust deepened between the community, surrounding farmers and the state.
Macpherson also highlighted allegations of criminality at the site, including illicit drug activity and trade, the unlawful subdivision and sale of state land, intimidation of officials and contractors, abalone-related criminal activity, shootings, and claims that the site may be used as a staging point for the storage and movement of drugs and weapons into other parts of the Western Cape, particularly Cape Town.
“Government has received documentation indicating that plots are being allocated and sold by individuals or groups with no lawful authority to do so, and in some instances for as low as R1,500.
“This obviously is completely illegal, but it is also the exploitation of people coming there who think that the land is owned by someone else that they can then just simply buy. This is the very definition of a criminal syndicate,” he said.
He added that permanent structures, heavy machinery, and organised commercial activity, including cafés and a bed-and-breakfast with a website, reflected a level of coordination and entrenchment that could not be ignored.
“These are not primary residences; this is a lot of money being invested in second homes or holiday homes,” he said.
Macpherson said government had also made several attempts to resolve the matter through engagement.
“Following a multi-stakeholder engagement in August 2025, government took a deliberate decision to engage directly with the established leadership structures in the community through the Knoflokskraal Community Task Team (KCTT) in pursuit of a negotiated solution that would allow containment and social facilitation to proceed in a structured and lawful way,” he said.
He noted that a bilateral meeting was held on October 24, 2025, and that an in-principle agreement was reached through a letter of intent dated December 5, 2025, but said the other side later reneged on that agreement.
“Engagement cannot be allowed to become a mechanism to delay action indefinitely. While unlawful occupation expands, intimidation continues and the rule of law continues to erode.
“At some point, government has to conclude that it has acted in good faith and that the broader public interest now requires decisive action. That is the point we have reached at Knoflokskraal,” Macpherson said.
He said the government would now act through a structured approach focusing on containment rather than eviction.
“Knoflokskraal currently has multiple access points that have enabled the continued movement of people and materials onto the site in violation of the 2021 High Court order. If the state is serious about stopping further unlawful expansion, those access points must be formalised, controlled, and closed when necessary,” he said.
He said government would now move ahead with a structured four-pillar plan aimed at restoring order.
The first pillar is containment, which Macpherson said would involve formalising and controlling access points, as well as implementing aerial and on-site mapping to monitor structures and movement.
“Containment is not eviction. It is the act of restoring order to a site that has been allowed to expand in an uncontrolled manner,” he said.
Macpherson said the second pillar, social facilitation, would involve profiling residents, collecting socio-economic data, mapping structures, and documenting cultural or heritage-based claims.
“Government cannot govern blindly. Social facilitation is central to restoring the rule of law,” he said.
The third pillar, he said, would focus on direct engagement with residents rather than only through intermediaries or contested leadership structures.
Pamphlets will be distributed at access points, and residents will have channels to provide feedback anonymously if necessary.
The process is expected to begin in May and will allow residents to explain how they came to live at the site, how they want to be engaged, and what they know about alleged corruption, illegal land sales and intimidation.
“It gives ordinary residents a voice and allows those with information to come forward without fear,” he said.
The fourth pillar is law enforcement and accountability. Macpherson said criminal cases had been opened, but progress had been limited and feedback insufficient.
He said he had written to the police minister requesting updates and stressed the importance of investigating allegations of bribery or compromised officials.
Macpherson also presented images and documents showing the scale of the occupation, including large brick-and-mortar houses, heavy machinery, building materials, and commercial activity on the site.
He further highlighted incidents in which emergency services were allegedly threatened at gunpoint, saying the situation had placed an unsustainable burden on the municipality and surrounding farming communities.
Macpherson said government would act lawfully, on the basis of evidence, and in a manner that was fair, transparent and constitutionally defensible.
“A constitutional democracy cannot have spaces where the law does not apply. It protects the rights of every South African and ensures that no one is above the law,” he said.
“No single person has the right to invade state-owned land, and we will take strong action against those that do it,” Macpherson said.
“From hijacking state buildings and land to unlawfully occupying land outside the Union Buildings, we will act without fear or favor to ensure that the rule of law is respected and our assets are protected.”
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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