Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe made the call following the eviction of six families who have lived for several decades on Farm Kaplan, some 30 km west of Gobabis.

"It is definitely a problem for people who have lived for a considerable time on a farm. They need protection and it is just proper for Parliament to look for a law to protect them," said the Legal Assistance Centre lawyer.

He said the Government must look at the South African example where a land tenure law which also protects farm labourers from eviction had been passed.

"By allowing farmers to evict labourers at random you are creating other social problems such as poverty, homelessness, crime, unemployment and squatting," he said.

Added Tjombe: "Parliamentarians need to put their heads together to protect the workers."

Commenting on calls for Government to seize the farm, another legal expert, who did not want to be named, said the land could be expropriated.

"Expropriation can always be done in the public interest. You have to look at what is intended to be achieved through expropriation. You must look at what that farm is producing and how many people's salaries this farmer is paying."

Government should also investigate the scope of promise made by the owner of the farm Dirk van Wyk to the employees, said the expert.

Van Wyk reportedly told the workers and their families they could stay on at the farm, even though he was moving to a home for the old-aged.

However, the new manager of the farm, Ron Pieterse, won a court order last week to have the 30 people living on the land evicted.

The lawyer said: "For me there is a certain validity in the promise that will justify the workers laying claim [to living] on the farm."

The expert, however, noted that "legally speaking the labourers have little rights on this farm because the law says the owner can do whatever he wants to do to his property. But from a social point of view we have to enforce the promise made by the owner of the farm."

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