I was shocked ‒ shocked! — to read that comrade Jan Serfontein, recently appointed North West minister for agriculture, conservation and environment, has been accused of being a farmer who closes off water for poor blacks.
I have known comrade Jan since I was young, having attended his farm school outside Potchefstroom for part of my primary schooling. My family of farm workers lived at Haagner’s farm, which is next to Serfontein’s successful farm. I remember him as the cruel farmer who once chased me with a knobkerrie because I refused to call him baas. I must have been about 13 then.
So I was very surprised when former president Nelson Mandela accepted Jan as an ANC member of Parliament because, up until then, I knew Serfontein as a trigger-happy farmer who shot at black youths who had dared to steal his fat chickens. If you stole from him, he hunted you down and shot you, that’s what everybody told us then. He was seriously feared, racist, swore a lot in Setswana and was liberal with the k-word.
But people change, don’t they? Jan Serfontein was a known member of the AWB, but he joined the ANC, embraced non-racialism and reconciliation. This is the miracle of our rainbow nation of God. After the second democratic election he was deployed back to the North West where he distinguished himself as a selfless servant of the people. He recruited farmers around Potchefstroom to join the ANC. As members of the movement they could evict farm dwellers without fear!
In recognition of comrade Jan’s commitment to democracy and transformation, he was promoted to the position of chairperson for the provincial portfolio committee on agriculture and land affairs, and subsequently promoted to provincial minister. Jan is now a seasoned cadre of the ANC who was prominent during the presidential imbizo in Potchefstroom earlier this year.
Why cast aspersions on such a splendid fighter for the democratic revolution now? Yes, he may have closed water off for poor blacks in Boskop, and closed a school to turn it into a chicken coop, but where is the contradiction there? Why drag his good name into the mud like this now? Is it because of Polokwane?
The opportunism of those who accuse comrade Jan must be exposed. I shall say nothing about the ongoing fear among his farm workers. I tried to give one a lift to his house last year, but the frightened worker begged me resolutely not to do this for the safety of both of us. I was puzzled until, reading my confusion, the farm worker told me that comrade Jan does harm to trespassers.
Comrade Jan’s enemies claim that there are continued human rights abuses on his farm, emanating from the noble hands of this son of the soil. The enemies of the ANC have short memories indeed. Comrade Jan apparently donates generously to the coffers of the movement and even holds braais for the leadership. He needs the ANC and the ANC needs him. It’s a win-win situation really, just like Madiba and FW de Klerk.
Among comrade Jan’s recruits to the ANC were the Haagner’s farmers, who were assisted by comrade Jan and the Potchefstroom local council to evict more than 100 families from their farm with the help of the office of then premier comrade Popo Molefe. It was a democratic eviction.
This act clearly demonstrated the truth that the ANC is a broad church, where the interests of all are served, and where farmers and farm workers can live in harmony, so long as they each know their respective places. Most of the Haagner’s evictees are now squatters in the outskirts of Ikageng township in Potchefstroom, where they live a very tough life, but their eviction was carried out in the interests of democracy and non-racialism, and I’m sure that they, as good citizens, understand.
I just wanted to set the record straight.
Andile Mngxitama, who was born and raised in Potchefstroom, now lives in Johannesburg