Giwusa: Defend the Right to Occupy and Organise – Reject the PIE Amendment Bill

GIWUSA MEDIA ALERT
21 April 2026

DEFEND THE RIGHT TO OCCUPY AND ORGANISE – REJECT THE PIE AMENDMENT BILL

The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) rejects the PIE Amendment Bill gazetted by the GNU Cabinet on 16 April 2026. This Bill is an all-out attack on the working class, and in particular on those forced to live in shack settlements as a result of a deepening social crisis.

South Africa is being ravaged by a neoliberal economy, mass unemployment, casualisation and precarious work. Millions of people are excluded from access to land and housing. For these people, the occupation of urban land is not a choice, but a necessity.

We need progressive legislation to resolve the housing crisis, legislation that will place the social value of land before its commercial value. This Bill, if adopted, will deepen the crisis and open the way to more violent evictions and the criminalisation of popular organisations.

It is important to be clear about where this Bill comes from. It was first proposed by the Democratic Alliance in 2022. The current version, adopted by the GNU, is significantly worse and more reactionary. It marks a clear and very dangerous shift to the right by the GNU.

Under the current PIE Act, courts are required to consider whether eviction is just and equitable, including whether alternative accommodation is available. The new Bill seeks to erode these protections and make eviction easier, faster and more punitive.

One of the most dangerous aspects of the Bill is the criminalisation of organising. It makes it a crime to “incite, arrange or organise” an occupation, even where no money is involved. This is an attack on collective action and democratic organisation. It carries severe penalties, including fines of up to R2 million and imprisonment.

It further criminalises membership fees and contributions for infrastructure in occupations. The basic practices through which working-class communities organise their lives and sustain themselves are redefined as criminal acts.

Another dangerous provision is that courts can evict people even where there is no alternative accommodation, if the state claims it lacks resources. This opens the door to eviction into homelessness on a mass scale.

The Bill explicitly targets organised action. Courts are instructed to consider the “pace, scale and frequency” of occupations when deciding urgent evictions. Being organised becomes grounds for repression.

Even where temporary accommodation is provided, it is time-limited. People can be evicted again without a new court order, creating a cycle of displacement and renewed homelessness.

Taken together, these measures amount to a fundamental shift to the right by the GNU and an all-out attack on the working class and working-class communities.

This Bill must be understood as part of a broader offensive. Alongside proposed labour law amendments, austerity, privatisation and attacks on workers’ rights, it forms part of a coordinated attempt to restructure society in favour of capital, while disciplining and fragmenting the working class.

The Bill is clearly unconstitutional. It threatens the limited right to housing and undermines the rights contained in the Constitution, many of which are themselves limited and unevenly realised. At the same time, it exposes the limits of a liberal constitutional framework that has failed to secure land, housing and dignity for the majority.

GIWUSA rejects the attempt to resolve a social crisis through criminalisation and repression. Evictions do not produce housing. Repression does not resolve inequality. This Bill will intensify conflict, deepen poverty and escalate violence.

If adopted, this law would overnight render organisations like Abahlali baseMjondolo and many smaller local community organisations criminal. It is designed to break the capacity of the working class to organise, to occupy land and to build collective solutions to the crisis.

We therefore call for:

•⁠ ⁠The immediate withdrawal of the PIE Amendment Bill
•⁠ ⁠A programme of rapid urban land reform
•⁠ ⁠The expansion of public housing on well-located land
•⁠ ⁠Recognition and support for democratic organisation in shack settlements
•⁠ ⁠We call on all workers, trade unions, community organisations and progressive forces to oppose this Bill in the public consultation process, through mass action, and in every space where this attack on the working class can be resisted.

This Bill is an all-out attack on the working class. It must be defeated.

Issued by:
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA)

For comment call:
Mametlwe Sebei – GIWUSA President
081 368 0706 / mametlwesebei@gmail.com