Farmworkers displaced by development
RIVERSANDS - Riversands farm is becoming known as a sought-after sporting event venue but it has emerged that 21 households had to be displaced in order to develop the area.
According to Godfrey Maje, a Diepsloot resident who has relatives on the farm, the community who had been living on Riversands Farm, came to the area in 1959 to work on the farm.
Maje said there were about 21 households, which housed 13 elders, 32 women and 51 children, and two grave sites on the farm. According to Maje the property developers, Century Property Developments started excavating grave sites and digging next to houses around the time of the Momentum 947 cycle challenge.
Maje claimed that the property company promised to relocate the farmworkers from Riversands to Northern Farm. “Residents were given two options,” he said. “To wait for a house at Northern Farm or take R30 000 to R50 000 cash.” However, Maje alleged that before alternate housing was found for the remaining farmworkers, Century started to develop a bridge two metres from one of the houses, and then began to issue eviction letters which stipulated that the farmworkers should take the money that was offered and vacate the farm.
Century Properties acknowledged that the farmworkers had originally been employed by the previous owners of the farm, yet according to Anne Vicente, spokesperson for Century, as far as the property company was aware, the farmworkers’ employment had been terminated in the early ’90s and they had remained on the farm illegally since then. Century acquired the farm in 2012.
“Mark Corbett, CEO of Century Property Developments told them [the farmworkers] that they would be given homes on a piece of government land nearby, but it was always an issue that there would be a timing gap, as the new piece of land would not be ready before the Riversands property would be developed,” she said.
Vicente confirmed that two offers were made to the farmworkers, a cash offer to assist them in securing alternative accommodation and an offer of a house at a future date. “It was made clear when these offers were put on the table that they were available for acceptance for a limited time period,” she said. “This gesture on Mr Corbett’s part was in no way obligatory, but was done out of consideration for the people who have been living there.”
