Farmer given 2 weeks to leave

2007-09-16 23:51

Dries Liebenberg

Pietermaritzburg - A group of protesters have given a northern KwaZulu-Natal cattle farmer two weeks to vacate his farm before they invade and start building houses.

Jaap de Villiers, 76, of the farm Uitval near Vryheid, is considering laying a charge of intimidation with the police after his workers were threatened during Friday morning's protest, and a fire broke out on the farm later in the day.

"It was the worst intimidation I've ever experienced in my life," De Villiers said on Sunday.

A farm manager in the Melmoth area, Ken Eva, was murdered at the beginning of the year in a land dispute with a neighbouring community.

De Villiers said the Ngome police had to call for reinforcements from other stations to ensure that the protest by about 100 people did not get out of hand.

The police accompanied two representatives of the group to the farmhouse to hand over a memorandum to De Villiers. The shouts of the group could be heard from the main road, he said.

The memorandum, which was written in Zulu and translated for De Villiers by a police officer, accused him of poisoning people living on tribal land next to his farm, and of shooting their goats.

He was given until September 28 to leave the farm, after which "the people will no longer live on the tribal land, but will build houses on the farm", said De Villiers.

Tribal land

His farm is bordered on three sides by tribal land after Inkosi Bheki Zulu bought the farms from two commercial farmers several years ago. Despite the fact that, according to De Villiers, no land claim on his farm has been registered, Zulu maintained years ago that Uitval is indeed part of his tribe's land.

De Villiers said the allegations that he has poisoned people and shot their livestock are devoid of truth. "I never go on to their land and I sell nothing to them. How could I poison them?"

However, he said he does fine people or impound their animals if they steal grazing on his farm. He also has a big problem with animals getting caught in snares put up illegally on his land.

De Villiers said protesters threatened that his employees would be assaulted and their houses burnt down if they went into the veld on Friday to count his cattle.

Although that did not happen, a large veld fire broke out later in the middle of his farm.

"I don't know where these people are coming from," he said. "It's as if I saw a nice car in town, and told the owner to get out, the car is now mine."

- Beeld