Nine families living on Ertjiesfontein farm near Saron in the Western Cape were granted a temporary reprieve from eviction on Wednesday.
The Tulbagh magistrate's court postponed an eviction order against the families for about a month, ruling that the eviction which to be carried out on Thursday be halted pending a Land Claims Court ruling.
The families are part of a group of workers who were made black empowerment shareholders of the farm.
However the venture reportedly went bankrupt, and the farm was sold off by the Land Bank.
Drakenstein municipality ward councillor for the area, Dan Kotze, said the farmworkers who were 55 percent shareholders of the farm say they were never part of the governing of the farm and were excluded from all management and ownership decisions.
They apparently did not have knowledge of the sale and therefore do not recognise the new ownership of the farm.
Kotze said that while he did not hold the new owner, Boet Immelman, "responsible for the mess" and was sure he thought he was making an "ordinary business deal", blame must be laid on the Land Bank which he believed should have "walked the extra mile to get the farm back on track".
Kotze said the amount of debt was not huge and a different solution like bringing more shareholders on board who could pay the debt was possible.
Members of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirit Industry (BAWSI) were on the farm on Monday and Tuesday to prevent the implementation of a court order to evict the families, granted to Immelman on the April 24.
BAWSI representative, Nosey Pieterse, said if the eviction went through it would leave close to a hundred people, the bulk of them children as well as a number of elderly people, without shelter.
Legal representative for the farmworkers, David Sauls, said that because the eviction order was granted on an urgent basis, reports by a social worker on the welfare of the children or stipulating where alternative accommodation would be provided, did not have to be issued.
Ward councillor Kotze said the Drakenstein municipality was trying to organise alternative accommodation for the families at a holiday resort.
Land was available there to put up tents but they were still awaiting a report on the feasibility of this.
No immediate comment was available from either Immelman's lawyer, Vinette Van Zyl, or the department of land affairs. - Sapa