Wave of farm evictions in Ceres leaves families without housing

The Ceres area in Witzenberg municipality was declared an eviction hotspot by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Mzwanele Nyhontso, in September last year during a stakeholders’ meeting. Since then, the Witzenberg Justice Coalition (WJC) says they have come to recognise certain patterns in the wave of evictions from farms in the region. These include farmers preferring to employ foreign nationals and seasonal workers over the labour of tenants, who they no longer want on their land, their use of the Land Claims Court rather than magistrates courts, and the courts approving eviction without alternative housing.

Speaking to Elitsha, Naomi Betana from the WJC says that they are dealing with a high number of farm evictions at the moment and that there are regularly new cases at the court that they need to attend to. She argues that the evictions are political driven: “What is worrying is the way how agriculture is busy maneuvering around the issue of land. You can see that landowners doesn’t want people on their land anymore. It’s very political.”

Courts cannot grant an eviction order if no alternative accommodation is available. Yet this is exactly what is happening. “We have seen cases where families have gone to court, and there’s no alternative housing, and that’s a great concern. Housing is a crisis in South Africa, but if you look at Witzenberg, it’s worse because there’s no emergency housing for farm workers,” says Betana.

In one of the eviction cases, the municipality said that it faces “a huge backlog and cannot meet the housing demand within a short period of time.” According to the municipal manager, as quoted in court papers, there are 10,268 households on the waiting list for housing.

Betana states that communities are becoming increasingly impatient, pointing out that some residents have been on the housing waiting list for more than 30 years. When farm evictions occur, those displaced people are also added to the same waiting lists. As a result, people begin fighting among themselves for the limited housing the government is able to build.

The Witzenberg Justice Coalition says that the farmers in the area are cutting labour costs by employing foreign nationals and seasonal workers who reside in nearby informal settlements and have to be transported to the farm.

“It is not like agriculture is contributing towards development in Witzenberg or is contributing towards houses. If they talk about alternative houses, they’re talking about a wendy house of R20,000 to R30,000 and then they feel very proud of themselves. But when you weigh that up against the fact that people were born on the farm and now you want to offer them R25,000 for a wendy house in another community, it looks like the farmers are almost outsourcing their responsibility of providing alternative housing to government,” said Betana.

Long service, injuries and summary dismissals

Three families that Elitsha spoke to had a combined stay of 85 years on the farms before they were evicted. According to Maria Joubert, her husband Frans was born and grew up on the farm that he was evicted from. “My husband was born on the farm and grew up on the farm. We got married in that house. He worked for more than 30 years on the farm. I also helped on the farm, only took time off when my children were born, and when they grew stronger, I went back working. After the birth of my last daughter, I did not work on the farm anymore but still I helped with kitchen work,” said Maria Joubert.

Frans Joubert, according to his wife Maria, fell from the ladder while pruning trees and injured his tailbone.

“He went to the doctor and got medication but did not ask for a medical sick note. The incident was reported and my husband stayed at home to recover; his back was injured. The farmer did not want to understand and treated my husband bad. When the farmer started with forms and papers, my husband decided to get another job in Worcester; he is still working there,” says Maria.

Jan Beukes and his family stay in Nduli township in Ceres. They were evicted from the farm that he was born on. The 49-year-old father of four told Elitsha that he started working at the farm from the age of 15 before he was evicted in 2017. He was dismissed after a foreman suspected that he was under the influence of alcohol and a breathalyser test was done.

“I did drink the night before but that stays in your body and system. Then he [the foreman] and manager came to my house and did a test; I cooperated, telling them I had a drink the previous night but did not drink that morning. There was a hearing and I was fired. The correct procedure was not followed – they should have taken me to a doctor to draw blood to get concrete evidence,” says Beukes.

Jafta Pekeur tells a similar story of displacement from the farm he worked on, starting from the exact date he recalls as 16 March 1996. “I was one of the people to plant the first orchards. When I came there, there were only four peach orchards. You can almost say there was nothing; we built it into what it is today and this is the thanks that I am getting,” says Pekeur.

Pekeur, who is currently appealing the eviction from The Fruit Farm Group in Ceres, told Elitsha that he was evicted after he had two car accidents, even though he informed the farm manager that he had epilepsy. His wife, Magrietha Pekeur, said that the two tests that were done after the accidents did not confirm that Jafta had epilepsy.

“Well, now that we have done the scans twice at Tygerberg Hospital and nothing was found on his brain, they tested for cancer and seizures, but there was nothing. I asked the doctors or professors at Tygerberg to write a report, but they said they can’t write a report because the tests do not show anything on the brain, they can’t surely say it is epilepsy. That’s why they always wrote on the sick note ‘medical condition’. Until today I have questions, if it is really epilepsy and they could not answer me,” she says.

It was only after he consulted a neurologist in 2021, according to the court records, that Jafta was diagnosed with complex partial seizures.

According to the records from the Lands Claim Court, the employer, The Fruit Farm Group, proposed a junior role to Jafta but he refused.

“The Applicant determined that Mr Pekeur could no longer perform his role as a production manager, but offered him the role of junior production manager. Mr Pekeur refused. He claims he refused because he would have had the same duties but a decreased salary. The Applicant admits the salary would have been lower, but denies the duties would have been the same,” reads the court papers.

The Fruit Farm Group then dismissed Pekeur after an inquiry about his health and ability to perform his duties which included driving vehicles and transporting workers. According to Pekeur, he was earning R19,238 as a production manager.

No alternative housing

Maria and Frans Joubert were, according to Maria, dumped across from the farm where they slept with their belongings on the road side. They stayed temporarily at the community hall which, according to Betana, created a lot of animosity from community members. “The community did not like the fact that they could not use the hall as they wished because there were people who were staying in it. We then negotiated with the municipality to allow them to use the house that is meant for a caretaker to accommodate them as they currently do not have one,” she says. The Jouberts have been staying in the house for 3 years now.

Jan Beukes told Elitsha that he was not provided with alternative housing and was barred from visiting his mother on the farm. He now stays in a backyard in Nduli township. “I am happy here where I’m staying but my wife is not happy because she wants a house. I applied for a council house in 2022 but those forms and stuff are still in that container and scattered – I can’t find it”, he said.

The Pekeur family, meanwhile, say that they have been not offered alternative accommodation as they are facing eviction. “No alternative housing was offered or any talk about housing. Nothing. They just said vacate,” said Magrietha. The employer, however, argued in court that they do have alternative accommodation as they no longer stay on the farm permanently.

Upcoming court cases

Daniel Kamfer and his family are also facing eviction and the case will be heard at the Ceres magistrates court on the 18^th of March. According to him, he was injured at work, which led to a dispute with his employer over the injuries he sustained and how long he was allowed to take sick leave.