POSTPONED

CAPE TOWN: The Western Cape High Court yesterday postponed an application for an eviction order to remove allegedly illegal occupants from privately-owned land.

The case against community members of Kayamandi in Stellenbosch will resume on November 6.

Residents came in their hundreds to protest against the eviction application from the land they allegedly illegally occupied in recent months.

The Stellenbosch wine farm owner turned to the Western Cape High Court in a bid to obtain the eviction order after a number of structures removed from Watergang were subsequently rebuilt.

Zola Ndalasi, a community leader from Kayamandi, said the lawyer representing the residents had asked the court to postpone the matter as he was still preparing the paperwork.

“But the judge said that by November 6 the municipality should have reached a conclusion about this matter. The judge said the municipality had to purchase the land, which the municipality says it can’t afford to do. Then the judge asked the municipality why it could not give some of the land it owned to the owner of the land in question, as a way of swopping, so that this matter is quickly resolved,” said Ndalasi.

“But the municipality says it already had plans for building new developments with all the land that is under its control for other people who were on the list before us.”

He said community leaders were planning to have another meeting with the municipality to discuss the matter, in the hope of finding a solution.

He said, however, that if no agreement was reached, Kayamandi residents would shut down the entire Stellenbosch area next week.

The Watergang is a piece of land situated on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, and belongs to a family trust that includes the Louiesenhof wine estate. | | African News Agency (ANA)