Cape Town – After having to squat for more than 100 days along the R44 following their eviction from the Windmeul Kelder, near Wellington, the May family will finally be moved to alternative accommodation.
A meeting between the family, the Windmeul Kelder owners and the Drakenstein Municipality ended with a settlement being reached which sees the wine farm providing financial assistance to the family to move to Wellington.
In March, Zonwabele May, his wife Nomabongo, their four children and their partners, as well as three grandchildren were evicted from the wine farm where the family had lived for 38 years.
Zonwabele’s son’s partner, Elna Brown, 27, said they were happy that they would soon have a formal roof over their heads.
“Windmeul agreed to help us financially, and we asked for a month in which to find a home in Wellington. It has been tough living in these conditions.
‘‘Our children had to stay on other farms with friends and family because we didn’t want them to suffer these conditions,” she said.
Brown thanked farmworkers’ rights groups and activists for their assistance over the past few months.
In a statement, Windmeul Kelder said: “Drakenstein Municipality reiterated its offer to temporarily accommodate the evicted family in two wendy houses in New Orleans Park.
‘‘After discussion of various proposals, an agreement was reached whereby Windmeul Kelder will assist the May family with alternative accommodation,” it said.
‘‘Both the May family and Windmeul Kelder owners were overjoyed with the outcome of the meeting.”
Women on Farms project co-
director Carmen Louw said: “It’s sad, actually, that families like the Mays are not granted established land rights when they worked for years helping wine farms reach their luxury status.
“We met the Drakenstein Municipality about its housing policy, which they are reviewing, and then providing Nutec houses to the displaced instead of tents,” Louw said.
She added that they would
continue to engage the municipality about adopting and applying integrated housing policies.
Provincial SA Human Rights Commissioner Chris Nissen said it was important that the Mays did not move “from one tent to another”, and he remained concerned over the New Orleans Park site.
Drakenstein Municipality community services executive director Gerald Esau said: “The Windmeul Kelder evictees and their legal representative, the management of Windmeul Kelder and officials of Drakenstein Municipality, engaged in a mediation process during which an amicable solution was reached and a settlement agreement was signed.
‘‘The Windmeul evictees will now find their own alternative or private accommodation by the end of July 2019,” he said.
Esau said that other displaced families currently staying at New Orleans Park would be accommodated in 24m² Nutec structures for a year, after which they would be relocated to a permanent emergency housing site at the Schoongezicht housing site.