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A story of small-town politics, chicken farming and Covid-19

A story of small-town politics, chicken farming and Covid-19
Terry Georgiev is accustomed to delivering organic carrots and eggs to her clients’ front doors. Police swooped on her premises demanding that she quit her operation. She will be arrested is she delivers eggs, she was told. (Photo supplied)

In spite of being what she believed to be properly documented, police swooped on Overberg, Western Cape, chicken farmer Terry Georgiev’s premises on Tuesday, demanding that she quit delivering her eggs and organic carrots to clients and threatening her arrest. Georgiev’s plight shines a spotlight on the ambiguity of government’s business lockdown regulations and confusion by officials having to implement these new rules.

In a small Western Cape town, chicken farmer Terry Georgiev is accustomed to driving around in her bakkie, delivering organic carrots and eggs at her clients’ front doors.

Since the lockdown, Georgiev has had her “Annexure C” essential services documents in place, allowing her to continue her business. Or so she thought. 

Georgiev’s 1,300 hens are laying eggs at great speed. These are piling up, while her customers wait in vain for their fresh produce. (Photo: Facebook)

On Tuesday in the coastal hamlet of Pearly Beach, South African Police Services officers swooped down on her premises – Georgiev Farming – demanding that she quit her operation. 

“If you try to deliver your eggs anywhere, we will arrest you,” they told me, says Georgiev, speaking over the phone. 

‘I have eggs coming out my eyeballs,’ says Georgiev. ‘About 150 people on my WhatsApp group are asking for orders.’ (Photo: Facebook)

On Wednesday, the SAPS officials, based in nearby Gansbaai, amended their missive, saying Georgiev is allowed to provide organic eggs to the local Spar and OK stores, while stopping all home deliveries. 

“My question is, why are Pick n Pay, Checkers and Woolworths allowed to do home deliveries, and I am not?” she says. “There is no training, no validation of their delivery services. They even use several different delivery people. Meanwhile, I am literally going out by myself in my bakkie. Each person’s order is wiped down. Each time the card machine is used, it is wiped down. I have my hand sanitiser and my mask. There is a whole health and safety process I follow.’ 

Meanwhile, Georgiev’s 1,300 hens are laying eggs at great speed. These are piling up, while her customers wait in vain for their fresh produce. 

“I have eggs coming out my eyeballs,” she says. “About 150 people on my WhatsApp group are asking for orders. Firstly, they don’t want to leave their homes. And secondly, they’re tired of being ripped off at the big stores. I work with small-scale farmers in the region, so I deliver organically grown food from Grootbos and Bredasdorp and so on. I mean carrots – huge beautiful carrots at R12.50 a bunch – delivered to your door. I do free delivery for R100 or more. So, this is incredibly nutritious food at one hell of a bargain. Now all this food must go to waste? My profit margins are minimal; essentially I’m doing this for my community.’ 

Indeed, Georgiev’s plight is shining a spotlight on ambiguity around government’s business lockdown regulations and confusion from officials having to implement these new laws. 

Overberg cluster commander Brigadier Donovan Heilbron told Daily Maverick that he is aware of Georgiev’s case — and that he referred Georgiev’s lawyer to a colleague. 

“The problem is, we didn’t have time to unpack this (regulations around essential goods and services) properly,” says Heilbron. “The regulations are changing all the time. We are fixing the plane while we are flying.” 

While Georgiev has her hands full with food going to waste, Heinbron has his hands full enforcing basic lockdown adherence.

Generally, people are adhering to the regulations,” he says. “However, we have challenges in informal settlements across the Overberg region. We note the frustration in terms of constrained space, in terms of movement. We are trying to educate people, we are handing out pamphlets. But it’s very challenging, people are still moving around too much. Whenever we stop them, they say they are going to the shops.” 

He added that in the Overberg region, SAPS deployment is at maximum capacity. 

James Vos, Cape Town mayoral committee member for economic opportunities and asset management, said misinformation and a lack of clarity around government’s business lockdown regulations is a problem. 

He released a statement on Tuesday to provide more clarity on shops allowed to trade. This statement followed discussions with the SAPS, he told Daily Maverick.

According to the statement, the list of stores permitted to remain open during lockdown are: grocery stores (including large retail chains, smaller food shops, butchers and convenience stores at filling stations); spaza shops; pet stores (only selling animal food); health food stores (if open, these stores may sell only essential goods; and pharmacies. 

In addition to the above, the statement says “businesses can deliver essential goods to people’s homes, but they can’t deliver hot meals or any non-essential goods to people’s homes”. 

Based on the above information, Georgiev argues that she should be allowed to do her home delivery rounds.

“I am just a small-scale farmer, sourcing produce from local farmers and trying to survive in this corporate world,” she says.

Vos said they would look into Georgiev’s case. DM/MC

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"Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]"

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