Cape Town - As millions of South Africans headed to the polls last Wednesday, elderly couple Georgina and Sidney Julies could only watch.
They could not reach the voting station metres away because of a barbed wire fence trapping them inside the property where they live.
They are one of two families living on Bottelary Road, Kraaifontein, who have been trapped for 10 days. The farmer they worked for all their lives arrived on July 29 and erected a barbed wire fence along the nearby boundary of the property, and later cut their water supply. There is no gate nearby.
The Julies' daughter, Marilyn, visits every day to pass them bread and water through the barbed wire. She is their only lifeline.
"They have worked on the farm all their lives, and this is the thank you they get: being held hostage," Marilyn said. "I'm the only one that helps them. Everyone is afraid, they don't want to help."
The owner of the land, Hendrik Abrahams, owns Meerdam Farm and a trucking company, Abrahams Transport. He describes himself as a "self-made man".
"I am an uneducated half-Italian half-coloured," he said. "I was a labourer and my mother was a domestic worker. I worked on this farm since I was five years (of age) till I was 18. Today I am a multi-millionaire. You know why? I worked for that."
He said the families living on his land were troublemakers.
"Those people stayed for how many years, and they don't play rent," he said. "They are selling drugs and alcohol. They messed up my place, I just cleaned it up. I am sick and tired with those kind of human beings. They stay for free and make a lot of trouble for people."
There are seven people living inside the fence.
Georgina and Sidney Julies are in their 60s. Sidney used to work on the farm before he retired.
Another former farm worker, Johannes Paulus, 78, stays there together with Mita Hugo, 80. Hugo is in frail health and suffers from asthma attacks.
Their daughter Felicity Haai, 40, also stays behind the fence with her two children, Courtney, 15, and Nicardo, 12. Courtney climbs through the fence every day to catch the bus to school. Nicardo is epileptic and confined to a wheelchair.
"The biggest problem we have is if my child gets sick now," she said.
"He is big, I can't pick him up. How can I get him through the barbed wire?"
Abrahams said he had replaced the old fence that had collapsed. "The fence was there before I bought the farm 30 years ago. I did not put a new fence, I just replaced it. No gate? That's bulls***. They want a gate opposite the house so that they can bring the alcohol and drugs into my place. Now I can check them."
And how can a wheelchair-bound boy be expected to cross a field of bush to use the distant gate?
"That is not my problem, he is not supposed to be there," Abrahams said.
Julies and Paulus said they had lived and worked on the farm for about 28 years. While they worked, each of the families said they paid R1 500 rent monthly.
Now that they are pensioners, they cannot afford to pay rent, but buy their own electricity and said they work on a casual basis to earn lodging.
Sidney said he had worked with and for Abrahams for 25 years. "I feel disappointed. I feel bad," he said. "We can't even go to church."
His daughter Marilyn said the fence came without warning.
"(The owner) did not consult them or even warn them," she said. "He thinks they are like animals. They are not animals; they cannot be locked up like that."
But Abrahams said he had finally capitulated to complaints from his neighbours to "clean" the place up.
"They are living like beasts, man," he said. "I was one of them, and today I am a multimillionaire, because I am honest, I have a good heart and I work hard."
Marilyn called the police immediately after her parents were fenced in, but they could not help.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed police had visited the site on July 29.
"Brackenfell police attended to the complaint. There were no grounds for any criminal cases since the people stay there out of their own free will. The owner of the farm erected new fencing around the premises and there is an exit route for the residents. They were advised to approach the court for legal aid and advice since this poses to be a civil matter."
Marilyn approached Legal Aid in Stellenbosch and has since been referred to the Bellville office. She hoped to secure an appointment on Monday.
Cape Argus