By Thapelo Molefe
Government says it will ask the Western Cape High Court to tighten a 2021 containment order at Knoflokskraal, aiming to stop any further expansion of the sprawling land occupation near Grabouw without seeking immediate evictions.
Briefing the media on Tuesday, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson said the priority was not removing residents, but freezing the situation on the ground so that authorities could finally determine who is living there and why.
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“We haven’t used the word eviction once… because that’s not on the table,” Macpherson said, responding to allegations that government is preparing to forcibly remove residents.
Instead, he said, the state is preparing an urgent court application to reinforce and expand a 2021 Western Cape High Court containment order, which will tighten control over the Knoflokskraal area.
That would mean no new structures, no new arrivals and no further building activity, which Macpherson said was the only way to stop a situation that has spiralled beyond control. “The first step is to stop what is going on as of today. No more unlawful occupations, no more invasions, no more building,” he said.
The land is owned by the department of public works and was earmarked by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment for forestry purposes. It was first illegally occupied in 2020 and has since grown to about 4000 structures, according to the Western Cape government.
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Despite the scale of the settlement, government still does not have a clear picture of who occupies the land. Authorities have been unable to fully access and control parts of the site, hampering efforts to conduct surveys or verify claims made by residents.
“We have to establish who is there, how did they get there, and why are they there,” Macpherson said, adding that without this information, any long-term intervention would be guesswork.
The inability to access the area has had knock-on effects for local governance. Theewaterskloof mayor Lincoln de Bruyn said the municipality cannot properly plan service delivery because it does not know how many people are living there or what their needs are. He said attempts to engage the community have been met with resistance and, in some cases, threats. “We can’t plan properly if we don’t have the information,” he said.
Macpherson said that Knoflokskraal is not simply a settlement of landless and desperate people. He said permanent brick structures, commercial activity and residents with vehicles, lived in the area. Some occupants may be financially stable and use the site as an additional property rather than a primary home, he said.
“There are people with cars, building double-storey houses,” he said. “There are people… who have a second home in Knoflokskraal.”
He said those with alternative accommodation would not be treated the same as vulnerable residents who may have nowhere else to go. “If you have two homes, you can’t expect the state to accommodate your second home,” he said.
He also dismissed claims that the occupation is linked to a formal land restitution process.
Macpherson said there are no registered land claims on the Knoflokskraal site, a position supported by Western Cape Premier Alan Winde.
Provincial Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers added that some groups claiming indigenous status are not formally recognised and have not followed the legal processes required to lodge claims.
The financial cost of the impasse is mounting. Macpherson said his department has spent R41.4 million since 2021 on security and related interventions, but the occupation has continued to expand.
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At the same time, the municipality is spending about R11 million a year providing services to residents who do not pay for them, placing additional strain on already stretched resources. “You spend that amount of money, you expect it to get better… and it’s got bigger,” he said.
Macpherson said government had reached an in-principle agreement in December 2025 with community representatives to allow a structured process of containment and social facilitation, but the deal ultimately collapsed before it could be implemented. “We agreed in principle… and then they backed out,” he said.
Macpherson said there is evidence pointing to illegal land sales, intimidation and criminal activity in the area, including links to drugs and weapons.
“There are criminal syndicates involved… drugs, weapons, gangs,” he said, adding that government has requested a full update from police on multiple stalled cases linked to the site,” he said.
“If we allow state land to be overrun… you will never be able to put that back in a bottle.”
