Rehana Rossouw
A STELLENBOSCH family facing eviction from the labourers’ cottage they occupied for 50 years won a costly three-month reprieve last weekend when Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom stepped in to help them.
Hanekom – who is attempting to limit the evictions of rural farmers through new legislation – managed to persuade the farm owners to allow the family to stay on condition they paid rent of R500 a month, more than double what some municipalities charge for houses in far better condition.
The Mail & Guardian reported last week that Katrina Williams, her three daughters and four grandchildren were to be evicted from the farm Le Verger after it was sold and the previous owners reneged on a promise that they could stay there.
Hanekom visited the women last Saturday, three days after he announced he was piloting the new legislation, the Extension of Security of Tenure Bill.
But when he arrived at the cottage, the sheriff of the court had already been there, armed with an eviction notice from the Cape Supreme Court, and the women were sobbing hysterically while they watched their possessions being emptied from their home and piled up in the dirt outside.
Hanekom headed up a hill to the farmhouse, where he entered into two-hour negotiations with its owners and their lawyers. When they bought the farm last year they were unaware of the Williams family’s lengthy tenure and verbal promises made by the previous owner that they could remain there.
The new owners had given the Williams family R2 000 to help them in their search for accommodation and the money could now be used to pay the R500 monthly rental. They also agreed to bear the cost of water and electricity consumed by the family over the next three months.
Hanekom’s representative, Helmuth Schlenter, said the family was now committed to finding alternative accommodation.