The murder of a farm manager by a mob of illegal squatters near Melmoth in KwaZulu-Natal and the role of the provincial department of land affairs in the dispute are to be raised in Parliament when it reconvenes next month.
Earlier this week, Kenneth Lionel Eva was clubbed to death with knobkerries and sticks following a meeting with squatters on the farm he managed.
In a statement on Thursday, Democratic Alliance agriculture spokesperson Kraai van Niekerk said Eva’s death, which followed a long-standing land dispute on the farm, is ”indicative of the failure of the department … to solve land conflicts quickly and effectively”.
Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana needs to take more responsibility to ensure her department solve such disputes quickly to avoid bloodshed.
”This incident raises questions about what role the department is taking to ensure that land disputes are properly mediated.
”The provincial land affairs department had been alerted to the fact that Mr Eva had received two death threats in the days prior to his murder and yet there was seemingly no attempt by the department to step in and diffuse tensions, or alert the police to the possibility of violence,” he said.
According to reports, Eva was attacked by 250 members of the eSibhonsweni community when he fired a shot into the air during an argument over ownership of the New Venture farm, which he managed.
”They attacked him with knobkerries and sticks … He died on the spot,” a police spokesperson said at the time.
Van Niekerk said he will raise the matter in the National Assembly.
”When Parliament reconvenes, I will be asking Minister Xingwana what attempts were made by the KwaZulu-Natal land affairs department to solve this land dispute since it started; what measures, if any, were taken to ensure that tensions did not escalate; and what actions were taken following the report of threats on the life of Mr Eva,” he said.
It is understood the New Venture farm is deemed commercial farm land, and a court order has been issued instructing the squatters be removed. — Sapa