A tiny farming community near Cape Town has accused the Moravian Church of robbing it of its inheritance and now wants to take legal action, reports Rehana Rossouw
FORTY years after an eccentric Scotswoman left all her wordly goods to her coloured farmworkers, the Moravian Church stands accused of betraying the instructions in her will and leaving the workers destitute. The workers and their families say all the farm’s implements and moveable assets were sold by the church and, as a result, they have been unable to farm.
When the National Party began ruthlessly enforcing apartheid, Ella Gordon Dove Colston entrusted the care of her 750 hectare farm, Karwyderskraal, near Hermanus, to the Moravian Church after her death in 1958. But in her will, “Miss Gordon”, as she is affectionately remembered, stipulated that her tenants and labourers must keep their homes, and that all money earned from the land be kept to improve the farm.
She also wrote in her will that the church must “on no account” sell the farm and that her house be occupied by employees Andreas and Anna van der Berg during their lifetime. “My furniture in the house must not be sold and everything must remain just as it is at present,” the will read.
Almost every member of the Karwyderskraal community of 60-odd staunch Moravians has a story about Ella Colston. Reportedly a member of the Black Sash, she was a woman ahead of her time. Fading black-and-white photographs, the last of her possessions that remain, show the eccentric woman as a blonde, pink-cheeked toddler in white lace, and later as a white-haired, short-cropped, trouser-clad farmer tending her beloved horses.
One of the Scotswoman’s eccentricities remains in the animal cemetery on the farm. It has 12 well- tended graves, each with a lovingly engraved headstone. “Booysums the wonder horse, we shall meet to part no more,” reads one.
“Polly my saddle horse good and true. Rest thy work’s done,” is another. Colston’s dog Woppy is buried alongside her.
Colston scorned modern inventions and refused to electrify the farm. Her heirs still do not have electricity. They recall she kept an eagle eye on attendance at Sunday church services and absentees were summoned to the farmhouse to account for their
People found drinking on the farm were summarily
Colston’s will instructed that labourer Karel Alberts be paid “one pound” a week to take care of her horses, plant potatoes and other vegetables and milk the cows to provide food for children on the farm. Anna van der Berg was to be paid “one pound” a week to cook for the children who attended the farm school.
The will instructs that “Mr Edward Capot and Mr John Wilson be allowed to occupy the houses on the farm which they built at their own expense and the only rent to be paid by them is the rates on their
Capot said the Moravian Church did not live up to its duty. Within a few years of Colston’s death in 1958, the farm had been stripped of everything of
All the farm implements were sold and fields which had grown good crops of oats and vegetables were left untended and were soon overgrown by shrubs and trees. The nine families whom Colston’s will authorised to live on the farm and profit from its earnings were left practically destitute by the
The Karwyderskraal community is also incensed with the church for refusing to extend the contract of a development worker, Rolf RYhle, who has been trying for the past two years to rehabilitate the farm and provide an income for its inhabitants.
RYhle is a German mission worker and, unless his contract is extended, he will have to leave South Africa next year. Most of the Karwyderskralers signed a petition sent to the church leaders four months ago asking that RYhle be allowed to stay on, but they have not yet received a response.
“Our church leaders are not interested in our welfare. All we hear is that the church is poor, but we have not asked them for a cent, just support for our work,” said Capot.
The Karwyderskraal Development Committee, headed by RYhle, has had modest success. Two fields have been cleared and planted with vegetables; work has begun on planting and harvesting proteas; beehives have been erected in the dense bush and four cows and two pigs have been bought.
The committee bought and repaired a used tractor, irrigation pipes and electricity poles. A disused building has been renovated for use as a shop and a church. The feeding scheme was restarted for the 50 children attending the farm school.
Another Karwyderskraler, Frederick Diedericks, also slammed the church for “not caring” about the community and not abiding by the terms of Colston’s will. “I have four children and grandchildren living on the farm. I want them to live and work here, not in the city.
“Miss Gordon’s will said we should benefit from the money earned by the farm but, because of the church’s neglect, not one cent has been coming in for years.”
The chairman of the Moravian Church’s regional council, Reverend Ben Lottering, refused to comment on the grievances. He referred all questions about Colston’s will to the Moravian Church’s attorneys.