Deputy mayor in race row
2009-10-22
Lise Beyers
DRAKENSTEIN’s Deputy Mayor was allegedly involved in an incident of thuggery and racism this week on a farm outside Wellington. Deputy Mayor Wilhelm Nothnagel, and councillors Arthrob Petersen,Sharon Davids, Abe Bekeer and Caudillo du Plessis, allegedly tried to intervene after a group of illegal occupants had been legally evicted from Seven Oaks farm in Agter-Groenberg on Monday. The eviction had taken place that morning under the watchful eye of the Sheriff of the Court, after the owners, Freddy and Karen MacCaskill, had successfully gained an urgent Magistrate’s Court eviction order to have over 40 illegal occupants removed from their property. According to a police spokesperson, these occupants were not employed on the farm and were a cause of much criminal activity in the area such as theft, assault and malicious damage to property. “The MacCaskills are racehorse breeders, and these animals are worth millions of rands a head. But they too were being injured by the illegal occupants.” After the peaceful eviction, Nothnagel and fellow councillors apparently descended upon Seven Oaks in a municipal vehicle, and convened a gathering of the evictees. According to Nothnagel, the delegation had gone to the farm to explain to the evictees where they would be accommodated. Karen McCaskill said that when she and her husband went to see what was happening, they were verbally abused with racist remarks by the crowd. “When my husband started to phone the police, Nothnagel stormed at him, swearing loudly and threatened him. I really thought that Nothnagel was at this stage going to hit him. “We were starting to fear for our safety and headed back to our house, when we heard a shot being fired. I could even smell gun powder.” The group was eventually dispersed by the police. Rural police sector manager Insp Pierre Hugo stopped the municipal vehicle in which Nothnagel was travelling to enquire whether anybody was armed. They denied this and an altercation ensued. McCaskill said that they had bought the farm eight months ago with the understanding that the illegal occupants were in the final process of being evicted. This was not the case and due to continuous damage to property, abuse and vandalism by the occupants, as well as various threats to the family, they were forced to turn to the courts. “We obtained an urgent eviction order which we could implement within 24 hours. But we wanted to sort out this problem amicably, and give them a chance to find alternative accommodation. “During this time three people who claimed to be Drakenstein municipal employees approached us and asked us to stall the eviction until Monday 19 October, as they were in the process of finding accommodation for the occupants. This we gladly did, but we never heard from them again.” The McCaskills have in the interim laid a charge of verbal assault and trespassing against Nothnagel at the Wellington police station. * A former ANC town councillor, Dan Kotze, will appear in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court on 18 December on a charge of assault following a similar confrontation on a farm in Klein Drakenstein last year.
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