PRESS RELEASE: RP Slams DA For 17 Years Of Inaction On Illegal Settlements In The Western Cape 

PRESS RELEASE: RP Slams DA for 17 Years of Inaction on Illegal Settlements in the Western Cape 

‍The Referendum Party (RP) has criticised the DA for pursuing amendments to the national Prevention of Illegal Evictions and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE Act) while failing to act at a provincial level in the Western Cape, where the DA has governed for 17 years and where housing is a concurrent constitutional competence. 

While the DA now speaks urgently about closing loopholes in national legislation, the reality on the ground in the Western Cape tells a very different story. Hundreds of thousands of illegal land occupations, the steady erosion of property rights, widespread environmental damage, and the entrenchment of criminal syndicates that profit from organised land invasions across the Cape over the last two decades.

RP says the consequences of this inaction are impossible to ignore. Law-abiding residents who have waited years - sometimes decades - for housing are routinely leapfrogged by those who have broken the law, including individuals who have illegally occupied railway lines, wetlands, and critical infrastructure corridors, as they require alternative accommodation in order to be removed. 

At the same time, lawful homeowners face endless planning restrictions, fees, and enforcement, while illegal settlements are increasingly governed by an entirely different set of rules. 

This double standard was openly acknowledged by Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who recently indicated that the City is relaxing enforcement against illegally erected two- and three-storey structures in informal settlements, claiming they are “not planning problems.” RP says this confirms the emergence of a two-tier planning regime - one for compliant citizens, and another for unlawful occupiers. 

RP says that while legislative reform at national level may be necessary, it is no substitute for immediate provincial action in the Western Cape - particularly given the likelihood that national reforms will be stalled or diluted by ANC resistance, from a party that has presided over decades of housing failure. 

The Party is calling on the DA to stop treating the Western Cape as a passive bystander and to introduce and pass provincial legislation to contend with the crisis without delay. 

The Referendum Party has already drafted its Western Cape Illegal Settlements Bill, which provides a constitutional, compassionate, and enforceable framework to:

• Clearly define what constitutes a lawful home; 
• Criminalise the organisation, incitement, and profiteering of land invasions; 
• Protect property rights and environmentally sensitive land; and
• Restore credibility, order, and fairness to housing and land management in the province.

“The Western Cape does not need more excuses or press statements,” said RP Secretary-General Robert King. “It needs political courage. After 17 years in power, the DA can no longer pretend this crisis belongs only to someone else.”

RP will be launching its Western Cape Illegal Settlements Bill campaign in due course.