The owners of the popular Strawberry Farm in Stellenbosch – that draws thousands of visitors a year to its farm stall – have been granted an order by the Western Cape High Court to reopen the property’s entrance on the Stellenbosch-Somerset West Road.
The court action was prompted after scores of police had dug up the access road twice in three days resulting in three members of the Samuel Zetler Trust approaching the courts for an order allowing them to reopen the access road.
Spokesman Jeffrey Zetler says that the business has been operating for more than 50 years from the same site. He says that members of the trust asked the court to grant it the rights to the access road and also demanded that the police repair the damage that had purposely done to the road.
On Friday 8 April, at 06h30 12 police vehicles, five tipper trucks and two front-end loaders from the Cape Winelands Municipality arrived at Strawberry Farm’s entrance on the R44. The front-end loaders started digging up the road leading to the farm.
Zetler says that one of the municipal workers said “You Jews, we will close you up.” Later that day the Zetler’s repaired the entrance so the business could remain open over the weekend but on Monday 11 April, 25 police officers arrived to again dig up the entrance again.
The Zetlers’ said that they had received a letter instructing them to close the entrance in April but they were still negotiating with the municipality when the road was damaged and dug up. The letter said that the access point onto the R44 was hazardous to motorists.
The Western Cape High Court ruled, last week, that the Zetlers’ “rights of access” and their rights “to undisturbed access to the Farm Mooiberge” must be restored with immediate effect and that the provincial government had acted “without the due process of law”.
It also ruled that the Zetlers be paid the legal expenses and the expenses of repairing the damaged road.
The farm attracts up to 5 000 tourists a day during the peak strawberry season. The access road to the farm from the R44 has been open since 1904.
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
Print
