Government does not condone the occupation of private and state-owned land, Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.

“No person has a right to allow, encourage, motivate, organise and instigate the occupation of land,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

Addressing a media briefing as the chairperson of the Justice, Crime and Security Cluster (JCPS), the Minister urged communities to work with government and report people who are instigating the illegal invasion of government or private owned land.

“We urge South Africans to make use of laws and processes that prescribe how land issues should be handled.

“The JCPS will not stand by and watch while these acts of illegal land invasions continue in our country,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

She said those who broke the law would be held responsible.

Recently a group of people occupied land in Ballito, north of Durban.

Mapisa-Nqakula said in February last year, the National Assembly passed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill, which reopened the land restitution process.

The new deadline, which applies to any person dispossessed of their property after 19 June 1913, allowed qualifying South Africans who missed the initial 31 December 1998 deadline to lodge land claims.

“There is absolutely no justification for any illegal land invasion. Government remains committed to land reform in accordance with the rule of law,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the expropriation of land without compensation was not government policy.

“We will continue to be guided by our progressive constitution that recognise and sets out measures to address deep-rooted inequalities of our past.

“Government will continue to pursue the just and equitable principle for compensation, as set out in the Constitution instead of the willing buyer, willing seller principle, which forces the state to pay more for land than actual value,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula urged land owners who fell prey to invaders to approach the courts for eviction orders in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, 1998 (Act 19 of 1998).