SOUTH AFRICA: RURAL APARTHEID LIVES ON

6/6/2002

National Land Committee and Landless People's Movement Press
Statement

"Ermelo Six walk free.but apartheid remains in Ermelo"

The National Land Committee - a national network of 10 land rights civil
society organisations working with poor and landless communities struggling
to access land reform across South Africa - and the Landless People's
Movement - an independent national movement of landless people demanding
land reform - celebrate the freedom of the Ermelo Six following the State's
dismissal of charges yesterday, but demand the urgent transformation of the
apartheid rural injustice system that remains the order of Ermelo.

The Ermelo Six - including four LPM leaders and two NLC land activists -
were among 100 people illegally arrested on 26 April, 2002 after the
conclusion of a peaceful and legitimate march to the Department of Land
Affairs to demand land and the transformation of the rural injustice system.
The protesters were charged en masse with "illegal march and illegal
gathering", despite having complied with the administrative requirements
associated with the Constitutional right to Freedom of Assembly. Within an
hour, the Ermelo Magistrate's Court had dismissed the charges against all
but six of those arrested.

Yesterday, the State finally withdrew its charges against the remaining six,
admitting that it had no case against the accused. In so doing, the State
has implied its acceptance of the principle that the exercise of the
fundamental Constitutional right to Freedom of Assembly as defined by the
Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 requires no more than the
administrative notification of the relevant authorities - in other words
that protesters are not required to obtain "permission" to exercise their
right. This implied admission is an important victory for all South Africans
attempting to exercise their right to protest in a democratic context but
faced with apartheid-era interpretations of this right by police and other
officials.

The NLC and LPM welcome the State's decision, but condemn the ignorant and
racist abuse of power by the rural injustice system which allowed the
arrests to be effected and the case to be pursued. The Ermelo Six travelled
long distances to appear in court three times on these malicious charges,
but were never even asked to plead before the charges were dismissed -
making the case a clear attempt by the Ermelo rural injustice system to
impose a burden on those daring to challenge the apartheid order in the
town.

Racist utterances by the handful of white police who effectively run the
Ermelo police station - despite the presence of a black station commander -
and one prosecutor's decision to proceed with the case simply because the
accused "knew too much about their rights" are just some of the indicators
of the lack of transformation in this microcosm of rural South Africa.

Apartheid still lives in Ermelo - and throughout rural South Africa - as
police, army commandos, prosecutors and magistrates conspire with the 60,000
white farmers who continue to occupy 85% of the country's land to prevent
poor black and landless people from exercising their rights to land, life,
justice and dignity.

The NLC and LPM demand the immediate resolution of the demands made by the
landless people arrested in Ermelo on the 26 April. They are:

1) That every land claimant in our march receives individual attention
today from the Ermelo DLA office, including the opening of our files and an
immediate response on the status of each of our claims;

2) That the government must take back the land that is unused,
underutilized, and unproductive; as well as the land of abusive, indebted or
absentee land owners. If the government does not do this, we will have to do
it ourselves. If the government does not know where such land is, they can
ask us and we will gladly tell them;

3) That the government must specifically take back the land which has
been turned into game reserves - and from which people have been evicted to
make way for animals - because this land is unproductive;

4) That the government must immediately stop all evictions and make all
evictions illegal (impose a moratorium on evictions) until a proper Land
Summit is held as agreed to in Durban in November 2001 at the Land Tenure
Conference;

5) That the United Nations launches an investigation into gross human
rights violations on farms in our region in particular and across South
Africa as a follow up to the Human Rights Watch report of 2001;

6) That the laws affecting landless people, including the Extension of
Security of Tenure Act, the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act and the
property rights clause of the Constitution are urgently reviewed in
consultation with the landless. This review cannot be done by bureaucrats in
Pretoria - the government must come down to the people to find out what is
needed;

7) That the commando system inherited from apartheid is immediately
abolished and private security companies replaced by a fair and effective
police service which serves the whole community - not just the white
farmers;

8) That Operation Gijimatsotsi must be replaced by an investigation of
farm abuses by the Scorpions who have the power to investigate the role of
the police and to take back the property of criminal farm abusers;

9) That the Department of Land Affairs must take responsibility for
ensuring that our demands are met, including those demands that involve
other departments, in terms of the principle of "cooperative governance".

ISSUED BY: The National Land Committee and Landless People's Movement on 6
June, 2002

FOR MORE INFO: Contact NLC Director Zakes Hlatshwayo on 011-403-3803 or LPM
National Organiser Mangaliso Khubeka on 072-127-4055.