Eva Crouwel - When the State comes to your Gate….

An anti-immigration raid on a private housing estate in the Western Cape is causing a furore. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Eva Crouwel, a property owner on High Riding Estate, describes how police in a fleet of about six vans - accompanied by Home Affairs officials - descended on the estate last week, gained entry without a warrant, “stopped their vehicles at multiple properties, were knocking on doors, were hooting their cars, effectively in an effort seemingly to gain access to the properties” until they were escorted off the estate by several residents and security. Crouwel, a trained lawyer, says: “I have done some investigation into the various applicable legislations and have not been able to ascertain that there is in fact a permission for access to private residential properties without producing a warrant…And if we allow the Police Force of South Africa to enter those premises without due cause or warrant, then that becomes a very slippery road that we are going to find ourselves on.” While the matter is now under further legal advisement, Crouwel has this advice for other estates: “Unless somebody has a warrant against you or something on your property in a very well described matter, on duly documented legal documents, you are not under any responsibility to let them onto your property.”