SCA ruling on land occupations 'embodies the oppressive nature of apartheid draconian laws' - EFF

• The EFF has described a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling prohibiting it from instigating land occupations as "regressive".
• The party says encouraging people to occupy land is its number one cardinal pillar and that it will not forsake that.
• AfriForum took the case to court in 2017 to interdict the party from telling its supporters to occupy land.

The EFF has slammed the Supreme Court of Appeal's upholding of a Gauteng High Court decision prohibiting the party from instigating land occupation, describing it as "regressive".

The party also said the judgment "embodies the oppressive nature of apartheid draconian laws that sanctioned the theft of our ancestral land".

News24 reported on Wednesday that the EFF attempted to appeal the order by Judge Peter Mabuse in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, which ruled in January that encouragement of the illegal occupation of land by the party was unconstitutional and lawless. The SCA dismissed the application with costs.

The court ruled that should the party continue to advocate for illegal land occupation, it would be considered a severe crime.

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AfriForum approached the court in 2017 to prevent the party from encouraging people to occupy land that did not belong to them, saying the EFF instructed its supporters to trespass. 

In a statement on Thursday, the EFF said: "Astonishingly, even in the era of democracy, we witness the courts criminalising the yearning for rightful land ownership, deeming land occupation illegal and branding it a criminal offence within our nation."

"AfriForum's pursuit of this interdict is marred by frivolous motives rooted in white supremacist, racist and anti-black ideologies. The recent ruling by the SCA has not only unleashed dormant violence that has festered beneath the surface but also created fertile ground for white supremacist, anti-black extremists like AfriForum to collude with trigger-happy police and security forces," the statement read.

The party added that the call for people to "occupy land" was the number one cardinal pillar of the EFF and a "principle that we cannot forsake".

"A regressive verdict of this nature, if left unchallenged or unreviewed within the confines of the courtroom, must be fiercely confronted and contested in the streets, employing any means necessary," the statement read.

It said it was its duty to protect the "vulnerable" from the "denial of their basic human rights".