The role and functions of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) in land reform in South Africa

Abstract

This thesis set out to determine the degree to which the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act is in line with the objectives of South Africa's land reform policy with regard to the promotion of access to land and security of tenure, and to determine to which extent the Act has contributed to land reform. South Africa's history of denial of land rights by dispossession and forced removals made the regulation of evictions imperative. Before this, black people had no recource when they were forced off land that they occupied, or even owned, for decades. The purpose of the Act is "to provide for the prohibition of unlawful eviction; to provide for procedures for the eviction of unlawful occuiers; and to repeal the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act 52 of 1951".