‘Eviction families’ march to hand over demands
IT’S the space of her humble kitchen that she will miss the most should she be evicted from her Boland home of 45 years at the end of the month.
Tears streamed down Karolena Nasau’s face yesterday as she remembered drinking coffee with her husband late at night, laughing with her children and cooking family-favourite Sunday lunches, all in her kitchen.
Nasau, 69, said she was handed an eviction notice from the Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) in July, stating that she had to be out of the house by the end of this month.
Wendy Pekeur, an affected resident from the Ubuntu Women’s Movement, said 48 people had received eviction notices, some of whom were widows of workers who were long-term occupiers according to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act.
The families affected are living on provincial government-owned farms in Vaaldraai, Muldersvlei and Helderfontein.
Yesterday they marched to the Vaaldraai state Research Farm to hand over a memorandum.
Senior officials of both the DTPW and Department of Agriculture will meet to consider the demands.
The Cape Times asked the DTPW on Tuesday why the tenants had received eviction notices.
DTPW spokesperson Byron la Hoe said: “The notices were only issued to
Heartbroken when I received the notice... I will have nowhere to go should I move
private occupants, or persons not working for government, government officials who have resigned or whose service has been terminated, as well as unlawful occupants.”
Tammy Evans, strategic co-ordinator in Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde’s office, previously said the houses were originally intended as work facility housing for employees of the Vaaldraai Research Farm.
In a joint statement yesterday, Winde and Transport and Public Works MEC Donald Grant said the occupiers of the houses were private occupants who were preventing the Department of Agriculture from allocating houses to state employees, who required work facility housing on the farm concerned.
“No decision has yet been taken with regard to these unlawful occupiers,” they said.
Nasau said she had lived in the house on Vaaldraai since she had started working as a farmworker in 1970 until she retired in 1988.
Her husband had continued working until he died of a heart attack in 1997, Nasau added.
“I was heartbroken when I received the notice,” she said.
“I will have nowhere to go should I have to move.”
She said that the letter took her by surprise as she was not consulted.