Fury after new owners claim portion of farm

More than 10 families from Theeboom Farm in Badplaas, Mpumalanga, are accusing the department of land affairs of handing over the land they are occupying to claimants without consulting them.

Several residents who spoke to The Citizen said early last year the Ginindza family, who are former residents, came onto the 1 000-hectare farm, erected a fence and started destroying livestock pastures to make way for a shopping centre.

“They told us that they had claimed ownership of the farm. Since then, they have been developing the area and taking over our grazing land, as well as the land we used for farming.

Claiming ownership of farm

“We confronted the provincial office of the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development who conceded they had made a mistake by handing over the farm without talking to residents who had been occupying the land for more than 60 years.

“We want to be part of the development happening in the area,” said James.

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Vilane, a leader of the affected families. Vilane said the family, which is not even staying on the disputed land, claimed ownership of the farm in 2020 and last year started developments without the involvement of the community.

He claimed that the new farm owners ordered some residents to give up their portions of land to make way for their project.

He accused the family of colluding with land affairs officials to fraudulently claim the land by claiming there were no people residing on it.

Accusation of colluding with officials

“The law says when you claim a land that is occupied, those families should be consulted before making a final decision. We met government officials for the first time on 12 December, after we asked for clarity.

“They promised to start the process from scratch and interact with us. A few days ago, an official from the provincial offices telephoned me and said they were working on our concerns.

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“We, however, don’t trust them because they did not put it in writing.”

He added: “As residents of this area, we want this process to start afresh so that we can be accommodated and become part of the development happening in our area.

“To make things worse, some of the land affairs provincial office employees agreed that they made a mistake by not verifying that no people were occupying the land,” said Vilane.

Officials agree they made a mistake

An affected resident who did declined to be named fear of reprisals said: “We were not consulted by the department before the land was handed over to the family. We need things to be done right.”

Department of agriculture, land reform and rural development spokesperson Zithini Dlamini said the department’s provincial office would meet the affected families.

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She however insisted that proper procedure was followed before the land was handed over to the Ginindza family.

Said Dlamini: “The office received a land claim from Mabhuza Simeon Ginindza and the matter was researched, gazetted and settled to the claimant families.

“The farm was handed over to the Communal Property Association, comprising 29 Ginindza families.

Farm handed over

The office met the group of families at the farm and made an undertaking to conduct a land rights inquiry early this year in consultation with the affected families,” said Dlamini.

She referred further questions to the Ginindza family as the current owners of the farm.

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However, Moses Ginindza, a representative from the family, had not responded to the questions sent to him by the time of going to print.