Cape Town - Citrusdal residents picketed along the N7 at the gates of a farm on Wednesday, demanding the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) help to utilise the land for agriculture.
Executive director of the Rural and Farm Workers Development Organisation Billy Claasen said the ARC stopped their activities in 1990 on the Proefplaas Farm, then the farm was leased out to a commercial farmer.
“According to the people, there were retrenchment agreements between some of the workers and the ARC. Some of them received packages and went off the farm and they received help from the ARC to get houses in town. According to them, the ARC agreed to pay half of the housing subsidy or loan for a period of 20 years.
“This agreement apparently never (stood) and was broken by the ARC and because of that, many people lost their houses in town to commercial banks.”
Claasen said the infrastructure on the farm was being sold.
ARC spokesperson Thaela Chimuka did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Claasen said the community at one stage was threatened with eviction.
“The community started to organise themselves into a formal committee, of which ARC tried to influence the community not to elect certain people as leaders but was in many attempts unsuccessful.
“Only certain people's electricity was cut to intimidate them. Currently, the community is without running water and without a working sanitation system,” said Claasen.
Cape Times