Leila Samodien
Justice Writer
WHAT began as a garlic farming project designed to empower women and alleviate poverty in a poor community in Hermanus is set to be shut down.
The Overstrand Municipality secured an eviction order last week.
Its senior manager of legal services, Lionel Wallace, said that to his knowledge, the project would be shut down.
The project was established on a piece of land known simply as the “Garden Site” in 2002. Its function was to provide work for unemployed women and food for the residents of Zwelihle, one of the poorest communities in the greater Hermanus area.
The women grew garlic and later added vegetables.
The municipality’s court papers told of a number of difficulties that arose.
The land was farmed by an association, which went by names such as the Zwelihle Women’s Garlic Project, Zola Organic Farming and Zola Garden Project.
According to an affidavit by municipal manager Coenraad Groenewald, the association’s lease agreement expired in February 2009.
A further lease agreement had been requested, while the association continued to occupy the property.
Groenewald said that by this time, however, the municipality had received complaints from former members about a lack of transparency and of accountability. Among other issues were that the association had failed to pay its full water bill, its financial statements showed the project was heavily dependent on grants, with no signs of its becoming financially independent and a study had shown that only small portions of the property had been considered suitable for farming.
Also, there was a “dire need” to use the property for housing.
The Overstrand council had decided in 2011 not to enter a further lease agreement.
The decision had not been taken lightly, said Groenewald.
The municipality had explored all possibilities, “notwithstanding the various difficulties”, to check whether the project could continue.
The provincial government had approved a housing development for 83 serviced residential erven, 58 houses, a public open space and a public road.
It was expected about R12.25 million in funding from the province would be received this month.
Groenewald’s affidavit said that the housing development would have been of greater benefit to the extended community than “the illegal, badly functioning and non-transparent business activities taking place on the property”.
When the matter came before court on Tuesday, the association and other respondents were not represented.
In an e-mail response to questions, Wallace said that new farming activity had been reported on the site.
The implications of the order were that the respondents had to vacate the property and remove any movable structures within one month of being served with the order, failing which they would be evicted.