With reference to Hopefield Farm about 20 kilometers outside Komani in the Eastern Cape, which is a state-owned farm that had been lying fallow when the members of Nonkebhotani Agricultural Cooperative started utilising the land to eke out a living after reaching a verbal agreement with her department, (a) what are the reasons that the cooperative was allegedly unceremoniously and unlawfully evicted from the farm on 26 June 2021, after almost 20 years of occupation and (b) what are the reasons that an alternative farm was not allocated to the cooperative;
(2) whether her department is prepared to compensate the cooperative for the losses incurred when the eviction took place; if not, why not; if so, on what date?
1. Hopefield farm falls under the portfolio of the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, not the National Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD).