Land tensions are boiling over in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, a local land activist warned after a farm manager was beaten to death near Eshowe recently.
Ken Eva was killed by an angry mob during a meeting with the eSibhonsweni community over land ownership and evictions on the New Venture farm in the Melmoth district. Eva’s car was also set alight.
‘Although we are appalled by the incident, it is not surprising,†said Lisa del Grande, director of the Pietermaritzburg-based Association for Rural Advancement (Afra). ‘Farmers, farmworkers and farm dwellers will bear testimony to the growing conflict simmering in the relations between owners, workers and dwellers.â€
Del Grande said continuing farm evictions and assaults were fuelling tensions. Many farm dwellers had expected new legislation, particularly the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta), to protect their tenure right, while evictions appeared to be escalating.
Among recent violent incidents recorded by Afra, she said, was the case of a Mooi River farmer allegedly shot goats owned by farm tenants and locked the gate to a farm they crossed to reach their homes. The tenants had reacted by destroying the gate and surrounding fences and sabotaging a tractor.
In Normandien, there had been physical conflict between a farmer and his colleagues and tenants, who accused him of running over a goat. After both groups laid assault charges, a court ordered the tenants to pay the farmer’s medical costs of more than R100 000.
The Nkosi Vukanathi Land Trust of eSibhonsweni Village noted ‘with grave concern the escalation of land and human rights violations taking place in farming areas of northern Zululand and failure of the government to act promptly†it said.
The trust added that the violent climax to the Venture Farm conflict ‘is not the way of handling land issuesâ€.
‘In the midst of suffering under which communities such as the eSibhonsweni community live their lives, we urge the landed elite and government authorities to ‘put away violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Cease your evictions of my people, says the Lord’ (Ezekiel 45 verse 9).â€
Two days before his death Eva had complained to the chairperson of the farm, Mark Chennels, about receiving death threats. Chennels believes he was led into an ambush.
Eva apparently produced his firearm at the meeting when he felt threatened and fired into the air. He was then beaten to death.
‘He was attacked with knobkerries and sticks … he died on the spot,†South African Police Service captain Vusi Mbatha told the media.
A church minister who attended the meeting, Bheki Buthelezi of the KwaZulu Regional Christian Council, said Eva had read out a letter saying that families residing illegally on New Venture land would be charged R1 000 a year, as well as R100 for each cow and R10 for each goat.
Buthelezi said the letter had angered the community and ‘tempers were very highâ€.
He blamed the government for allowing tensions to escalate out of control, saying the dispute over who owned the land had started in 2005 and that authorities were aware of it, but had failed to act.
In November KwaZulu-Natal’s land authorities had confirmed that the disputed land was commercially owned.
Chennels told the Mail & Guardian that an induna who had once worked on the farm had been selling off pieces of New Venture land to a community of about 200 people.
On discovering this, farm management had won a court order and evicted five families, none of which worked on the farm.
After negotiations, it was decided that people would be allowed to stay if they paid rent. The decision was communicated in the letter.
‘The letter was a compromise,†Chennels said.