Stille waters, diepe grond (Still waters, deep ground), runs the Afrikaans saying, but perhaps not in this case.
In a move likely to heighten the row over Western Cape farm evictions, a farm workers’ compound on businessperson Christo Wiese’s Stellenbosch wine estate, Lourensford, has been converted into a set for an Afrikaans TV comedy series about pensioners. The compound has been reincarnated as an old age home called Huis Stille Waters.
Directed by Sandra Prinsloo and featuring well-known actors Antoinette Kellerman, Lida Botha, Trix Pienaar and Eric Nobbs, the TV series is being made for the Afrikaans channel KykNet and is titled Geraldina die Tweede.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported on a war that had erupted in the Stellenbosch winelands over the eviction of farm workers to make way for student and tourist accommodation. Lourensford is one of the farms in the area from which farm workers have been moved to alternative accommodation in the Strand.
Locals now jokingly refer to the set on the farm as the winelands’ “own volkstaat”, in reference to the mostly white, elderly cast of the television series, according to an irate local who phoned the M&G to protest about the project.
But farm manager Johan Cronje said only contract workers had been evicted. “They had no hot water and they were moved to houses with better facilities,” he said, adding that all the removals were carried out within a strict legal framework.
“Normally the compound would be empty if it was not for the set.”
Kyknet’s Danie Botha said Lourensford was chosen because of its ideal location and because past series had been shot on the farm. “We had to paint the buildings and plant a garden,” he said. Cronje said Lourensford had no long-term plans for the compound.