Newly-elected Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has promised to look into the Marikana informal settlement land issue that is before the SCA. This, after hundreds of residents, who are among the more than 60 000 people occupying a private property in Philippi since 2013, marched to the provincial legislature yesterday after Winde had presented his new Cabinet. According to a Cape Times report, they demanded an urgent intervention to the land debacle, saying the privately-owned land must be purchased as it hampered proper and permanent services like flush toilets and access to roads. The land belongs to Iris Fischer, Manfred Stock and Coppermoon Trading, who all initiated a legal battle to force the city to buy their properties after it was occupied. In 2017, Western Cape High Court Judge Chantal Fortuin had ordered the city to enter into negotiations, in good faith, to purchase the land. If negotiations failed, the court ordered the city to expropriate the land or provide reasons why it was unable to do so. The city and provincial government planned to appeal against the landmark judgment ordering it to buy the Philippi land.