{"id":235369,"date":"2022-08-26T19:26:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T17:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/farm-workers-living-in-robertsons-forgotten-informal-settlement\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T19:26:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T17:26:35","slug":"farm-workers-in-robertsons-dumping-ground-call-for-better-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/farm-workers-in-robertsons-dumping-ground-call-for-better-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm workers in Robertson\u2019s \u201cdumping ground\u201d call for better services"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deneco Dube of the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) led over 200 people on Wednesday through Robertson, demanding the Langeberg Municipality provide basic services for farm workers living on the outskirts of the town. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n

Oppiekoppie informal settlement, on the outskirts of Robertson, has been dubbed locally as \u201cthe dump ground\u201d for farm workers and dwellers who have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

The community is home to about 150 people. Despite pleas to the municipality for help, their homes have been without electricity, toilets, and adequate water points for over ten years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want help. We\u2019re tired of waiting,\u201d says farm worker Abigail Jacobs.<\/p>\n

This week, Jacobs was among 200 people supported by members of Commercial, Stevedoring, Agriculture & Allied Worker Union (CSAAWU) and affiliated unions who marched through the small town. Among their demands was for the Langeberg Municipality to provide residents of Oppiekoppie and surrounding settlements with sanitation, more water points, dirt bins and bags, among other things.<\/p>\n

Deneco Dube, deputy general secretary of CSAAWU, said they have been alerting the council to the \u201curgent needs\u201d of vulnerable communities like Oppiekoppie since 2020. \u201cWe want the municipality to stop farm evictions and dumping people at Oppiekoppie,\u201d said Dube.<\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor Johnny Steenkamp received the memorandum. The municipality has a week to respond.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the conditions for Oppiekoppie families remain dire. Most people living here have been evicted from farms and can\u2019t afford to pay rent for backyard dwellers while some want to escape overcrowded rural homes.<\/p>\n

Jacobs, who has been living at Oppiekoppie for over ten years, said she can\u2019t afford to pay rent for herself and her four children anywhere else. \u201cI had no food for my children at the end of the day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said all of the residents share one water point and \u201cevery now and then\u201d the municipality brings black bags and takes away their rubbish.<\/p>\n

Jacobs believes that the lack of adequate sanitation and toilets is making people sick.<\/p>\n

Another Oppiekoppie resident Koos Plaatjies said that for the past few years, he has been managing with collecting firewood to cook and he grows his own vegetables. \u201cI want to sustain myself because the government can\u2019t help us,\u201d said Plaatjies, adding that they\u2019ve appealed to the municipality for help for many years.<\/p>\n

Langeberg Municipality did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

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Oppiekoppie is an informal settlement on the outskirts of Robertson, Western Cape, that is just over 10 years old. Residents here don\u2019t have electricity or toilets, and there aren\u2019t enough taps.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deneco Dube of the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) led over 200 people on Wednesday through Robertson, demanding the Langeberg Municipality provide basic services for farm workers living on the outskirts of the town. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks Oppiekoppie informal settlement, on the outskirts of Robertson, has been dubbed locally as \u201cthe dump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-235369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/farm-workers-in-robertsons-dumping-ground-call-for-better-services.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}