SOUTH African farmers have vowed protests after the government issued its first expropriation order this week against a white farmer reluctant to give his land back to the original black owners.
According to the notice, Willem Pretorius’ Boomplaats Farm will legally belong to the State as of Tuesday next week after which it will be given to a dispossessed community.
The right-wing Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) said farmers were infuriated by the expropriation, and accused the government of stealing land.
“The monstrous way in which land is taken from whites and given to others, is blatant discrimination and racism and is precisely what [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe – only in a concealed form,” said TAU president Gert Ehlers in a statement. “TAU confirms its support of Willem Pretorius and will as far as possible (help) resist this process of land theft.”
Ehlers said that the way the government confiscated the land created a precedent that would be difficult to stop. TAU has indicated that its members were raising money for a legal support fund to fight land claims.
The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights served the expropriation papers on a calm Pretorius, who for eight months resisted the State’s offer to buy the farm for R840_000 for the Dinkwanyane community. Pretorius, who bought the land with a soft loan, wants R2,1 million.
“I’m going to fight by all means until I get what my farm is worth,” said Pretorius shortly after signing the papers. “I can’t do anything with the [government’s offer] because it can’t replace what I’ve got.”
Commission project officer, Kwape Mmela, said Pretorius had until next Tuesday to change his mind about the government’s offer.
“Or he can fight the decision (to expropriate) in court if he feels he was unfairly treated,” he said.
Pretorius has eight months in which he can appeal the expropriation in the Land Claims Court. He has farmed the 1_270 hectares of maize and grazing land since 1982 and will be allowed to continue living on the farm until May 20, after which he must find alternative accommodation.
The farm was claimed by the Dinkwanyane community, which was forcibly removed from the land by the apartheid government in 1957. – African Eye News Service
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