Cops on farm after brutal killing
2007-01-13 17:03
Durban - Police have been deployed to keep guard on a Northern KwaZulu-Natal citrus farm near Melmoth where a farm manager was killed by an angry mob in an apparent land dispute.
Police spokesperson captain Vusi Mbatha said on Saturday "additional" officers had been deployed at New Venture Farm where Kenneth Lionel Eva was earlier this week bludgeoned to death with knobkerries.
"We cannot say how long they will be deployed. We are monitoring the situation."
Eva had attended a meeting on the land at New Venture Farm in the Nkwaleni area between Melmoth and Eshowe when the attack took place.
Meanwhile the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) urged the government to speed up the resolution of land issues.
In a statement released on Friday, the Kwanalu said: "It seems to us that this incident, in its brutality, has taken place in the context of heightened rhetoric relating to the land reform issue and further illustrates the need for an expeditious conclusion to the processing of all outstanding Restitution and Tenancy related claims."
"A call is therefore issued for the reform of the agricultural sector to be a consequence of intense and well meaning dialogue between all players without frustrations flowing over into incitements to harmful and criminal actions."
Staff at New Venture farm, which primarily produces grape fruit for export, hailed Eva as "a good man" who solved their problems while squatters described him as a "racist".
Jabu Mtshali, 36, the head of security at the farm who discovered Eva's battered body, said: "He was a good guy on my side."
"He was not a guy to say I'm a big boss and not listen to your plans. He was only here a few months. My heart is very sore because we lost a good guy," Mtshali said.
John Kunene, 43, who work's in the orchard's pack house said: "He was the same like a priest. You could go to him with a problem. I hope our next manager will be like him."
However, headman for the people occupying the disputed land, Mhlangabezeni Zulu, said Eva was a racist.
"Maybe now the government will solve the problem because a white man has died. When black people are abused nobody speaks about it, but when a white person is killed it becomes a big story and it is reported on," he said.
He accused the farm owner, Mark Chennells of firing local people and "hiring foreigners".
- SAPA