The farmers have linked up with environmentalists to oppose the proposed multi-million rand Lakes Eco golf resort development in Sedgefield because they say they have been told by local authorities there is no land available for their housing, grazing and crop production.
The residents also say they were forcefully removed by the Knysna municipality from their shacks in Sizamile location, claiming this was a bid to clear the land for the development.
But the Knysna municipality says it had to employ stricter measures to stop the rapid growth of informal settlements on the Garden Route.
The Siyazama Emergent Farmer Group said they had been applying for access to State land for their livestock to graze and for them to produce crops for their income since 2002 but they were told that there was no land available.
The group said their livestock was impounded with hefty fines of up to R700 per head if it was caught outside the small area allocated to them -- and an additional R300 was imposed on them for the transport of the livestock.
"We have livestock but no land for them to graze and we have been in talks with the Knysna municipality since 2002," said farmer group spokesman Lucas Lebenya.
"They told us directly that there was no land and it angers us that there is land available for exclusive golf course developments and not for our impoverished people."
Lebenya said some of the emergent farmers even had to sell their livestock to pay the fines which put them at an even greater disadvantage as farmers.
Knysna municipal manager David Daniels said that farming did not fall under the mandate of the municipality but that the Knysna council planned to meet with relevant stakeholders, including the Eden District municipality and the department of agriculture, to solve the problem.
Faan Mathiya, spokesman for the provincial agriculture department in the region and based in George, said that the department was not aware of the land applications by the farmers group but said his department would contact the group and conduct further investigations.
"Last week there were trucks that demolished people?s shacks without notice and no alternative place has been given for our people to stay," Lebenya said.
However, the Knysna municipality says the rapid increase in informal housing structures on vacant land in Knysna has forced it to "exercise stricter controls". Daniels said that all established informal structures in Sizamile were given numbers and those without numbers were not permitted and were therefore removed on Friday, September 9.
"Recall Security, a private company based in George, has been employed to exercise control on behalf of council, and according to Christo Boshoff of Recall Security the removal of the shacks was managed as humanely as possible under very threatening circumstances," Daniels said.
He said that occupants were given enough opportunity to remove all their possessions before their shacks were demolished.
"Over the past three weeks, 27 shacks were removed," he said.
Daniels said that the Sizamile area had been particularly problematic because of the shortage of land and social problems that arose from the area.
"It has one of the highest crime rates in the Western Cape."
He said council was negotiating the purchase of vacant land to relieve the housing crisis in Sizamile and Smutsville.
"According to our estimates between 35 per cent and 40% of residents in Sizamile and Smutsville live in informal housing and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency," Daniels said.
The Siyazama Emergent Farmer Group will join a protest march planned for Saturday by the Guardians of the Garden Route against the proposed Lakes Eco resort which they describe as a "private, fully-serviced town reserved for the wealthy".
"We have been talking with the municipality for years and that did not seem to help. So we want to take further action and we are hoping that after the march they will take us seriously and put the golf course on hold and prioritise our people," Lebenya said.
Eastern Province Herald
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
