In yet another land grab in the Lowveld, Hendrik Brink was one of the farmers who, over the past two months, fell victim to land-grabbers who invaded a couple of farms in the Karino area.
The grabbers claimed that they were the rightful owners of land in the valley and that they had been evicted by the previous regime and resettled in Daantjie near KaNyamazane.
A few weeks ago, the illegal occupiers started marking out stands on two of the farms and even brought in graders to start clearing the area and building roads.
One of the leaders of the group allegedly started selling stands to community members for R600 each.
Two weeks ago, the invaders shifted their focus to Brink’s farm where they also started marking out stands and were planting wooden posts to demarcate each one.
Brink immediately reacted to protect his property by removing the posts and blockading his entrance road to the farm with rocks. He also erected a “No Entry” sign.
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This led to him being threatened by a man known as “Comrade” Sifiso.
A video taken by Brink during the confrontation, shows the man, among others, threatening him with death. He also said the invaders threatened to burn down his farmstead.
Brink, on the other hand, told the invaders he will take action to immobilise all the construction vehicles that they used to clear the area.
The footage he took during the confrontation went viral on social media and soon reaction and messages of support came in from the UK, US and Australia.
On Saturday there was yet another flare-up between Brink and land-grabbers who claimed they were there on behalf of Chief Mshogwaba, who is apparently in charge of the Daantjie community who was allegedly evicted.
One of the invaders tried to grab Brink’s cell phone and in the struggle he was injured and left with blood streaming from a deep cut to his leg. That same night, his dog died.
Brink, however, said he cannot confirm if his dog was poisoned or was bitten by a black mamba.
The carcass was taken for an autopsy in an attempt establish the cause of death.
In the meantime, the police told Brink that he should lay criminal charges against the land-grabbers as they can only react when they have a case number. Brig Leonard Hlathi, spokesperson for the police, did not respond to a request for comment.
The City of Mbombela Local Municipality obtained an eviction order against the various groups that were involved in several land grabs in the area over the past week.
The Speaker of the council, Cllr Sipho Siwela, said the court order only allows them to evict the protesters and not to destroy the shacks.
Currently, things have been quiet in the Karino valley since the land-grabbers left the area.
“We are, however, expecting trouble in the near future,” a farmer who requested to remain anonymous, told the paper. Some farmers already started upgrading their security fencing to ensure the safety of their property
and staff.
Over the past few days there was another land grab issue, this time in the Cairn area. Shaun Flamingine and his family bought an 18-hectare plot in 2003 and then subdivided the land into three.
“We have lived next to the Cairn Community Trust for a number of years now without any conflict.
“However, a breakaway group started threatening us a few weeks ago.”
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In this case, the land-grabbers also set up demarcation stands on the property and brought in a TLB to level the ground.
“I tried speaking to them, but soon realised they don’t really have a claim and weren’t speaking from the same mouth. They also threatened to construct a massive road across our three plots,” Flamingine said.
