19 April 2025
PRESS RELEASE NO EMBARGO
AL JAMA-AH to help stop an apartheid activity
AL JAMA-AH’s President and a member of the Leader’s Forum of the Government of National Unity (GNU) Hon Ganief Hendricks, has responded swiftly to the request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to provide him with legal prescripts to prevent the evictions of one million farm dwellers in South Africa.
Evictions from farms is a tragic reminder of the harm caused by the Group Areas Act during the darkest days of apartheid in South Africa. President Ramaphosa gave no indication whether he would still support a moratorium on farm evictions which he made when he visited the Cape Winelands in 2014 while he was Deputy President.
Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, Rev Chris Nissen and the NGO, Women on Farms Project made a direct appeal to Hendricks – by quoting Chapter Nine of the Constitution – to help stop 1500 farm dwellers from being evicted as a result of 500 court cases in the Paarl Magistrate Court in the Drakenstein Municipality, Cape Winelands District.
This looming evictions in Drakenstein and throughout the Cape Winelands, triggered an agreement by the Deputy Minster in the Government of Unity (GNU) that the President be provided with a concept document and legal prescripts to stop the evictions in Drakenstein, surrounding regions and in other parts of South Africa.
The legal prescripts will be released on Freedom Day in Paarl on 27th April 2025 which is also AL JAMA-AH’s 18th birthday celebration. “What better contribution can be more made than stopping an apartheid activity to rear its head again after 30 years into our democracy than on the important occasion of AL JAMA-AH’s 18th birthday and the release of its 27th April statement. This statement of the party’ s progress over 18 years, will start off by stating: “We have released the legal prescripts the President has asked for to stop an apartheid activity evicting a million farm dwellers from ancestral land they occupied over 200 years,” says Hendricks.
Issued by Asghar Khan on behalf of Al Jama-ah
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