Two farms in the Upper Tongaat region suffered millions of rands in damages in sabotage and arson attacks last week, destroying thousands of macadamia trees and sugar cane, the seventh attack on this farming community since June.
Three boards were left behind on the two farms with the messages “Bring back our land”, “This land belongs to us” and “We want our land” written in red paint.
Speaking to the Courier on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, the farmers said the latest attacks took place in the early hours of August 26.
“We received an alert at about 2.30am on Wednesday morning. When I went to investigate, I discovered that our macadamia trees had been deliberately hacked down,” said the farmer.
On the first farm 1 107 macadamia trees had been cut down over 4 hectares. Most of the destroyed trees were 5 year old crop – due for their first harvest.
A neighbouring farmer lost more than a 1 000 macadamia trees.
Half were cut down and the remainder were burnt.
Another 18 hectares of next season’s sugar cane crop was also destroyed when his fields were set alight, as well as a number of newly-planted gum trees.
Just over 3 weeks ago 51 hectares of young sugar cane was torched on the same farm.
“In the first incident on August 4 when we went to put out the fires, shots were fired at our tractors. We had to wait for our security company before we could do anything,” he said.
“The total sugar cane loss in August was more than R2 million in damages. Although some of that cane was millable, the yields were extremely low. The fields now need to be resprayed and fertilised a season too early.”
Last Wednesday’s fires took more than 12 hours to bring under control.
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“There must have been at least 40 to 50 people who set about systematically cutting down the macadamia trees as between the two farms almost 10 hectares of trees were destroyed,” said one of the disheartened farmers, who suffered a big loss in July when 132 of his macadamia trees were cut down.
While several farmers have had hair-raising experiences with illegal dog hunting gangs who target the wildlife on their farms, it is believed that the attacks may also be linked to land claim disputes.
Two land claims by the Qwabe/Waterfall community including the Makhosikhosi Trust were recently dismissed by the Land Claims Court with punitive costs as the claimants could not establish ownership of the land.
The court found: “The witness was pursuing his own political agenda rather than a claim based upon the existence of a community deprived of land through the application of racial legislation post 1913.”
The court findings further stated the claim lacked any “validity” and said the respondents and their officials wasted millions of public funds that should have been devoted to meritorious claims and not the reckless support of a “politically baseless endeavor”.
About 60% of Ndwedwe local municipality, which borders the farms in question, is governed by 23 traditional leaders.
The remainder of the land is made up of commercial farm lands in the north-east of the municipality.
The neighboring Nkumbanyuswa community is ruled by Chief Siphiso Ngcobo, whose spokesperson, Sam Mfeka, referred the Courier to the department of rural development and land reform for questions on land claims.
Mfeka said they were saddened by the farm attacks and that the chief was open to talk with the farmers.
However, numerous requests by the farmers to meet have yet to be granted.
The farmers said the authorities had failed them and that government were not doing enough to address the security needs of farmers.
“There seems to be no respect for the law, law enforcement or structures of authority.
“We have had no feedback from the police on what has happened with these arson cases. We have at least 6 open cases with Umhlali Saps. I still don’t have a case number from the incident on August 4 where we were shot at while trying to put out the fire. They promised to SMS me the case number but never did,” said one farmer.
A macadamia nut industry expert said the capital investment to plant an orchard was extensive.
Farmers have to wait at least 5 years to see a return on their investment while the crop requires ongoing upkeep.
“Losing 5-year-old trees puts that field back many years. To replace them, the farmer will have to wait 18 months to 2 years for trees from the nurseries (due to high demand most nurseries have a waiting list of up to 2 years) he will need to prepare the area for replanting and go through all the costs again to bring these trees into production.”
A neighbouring farmer told the Courier he felt police had little power to improve the situation.
“You grow hopeless, living in persistent fear. The problem is a collective one, affecting not only farmers but our farm workers and their families who rely on us for their livelihoods.”
Cops under resourced
Agricultural union TLU SA deputy general manager, Chris van Zyl said the Saps Rural Safety Strategy made provision for a number of non-violent crimes including arson which constituted a “farm attack” and threatened sustainable and profitable commercial farming and should be given priority attention by the police.
“In practice however, the personnel capacity of Saps stations in rural areas as well as crime intelligence and logistic support leaves much to be desired in terms of rapid response and critical crime prevention operations.
“TLU SA has approached the national commissioner requesting an ‘Agricultural-friendly Saps reservist system’ and while this proposal was received in good spirit, it did not result in any form of constructive outcomes.”
DA KZN spokesperson on Agriculture and Rural Development, Chris Pappas said:
“Many police officers are not properly trained and provide wrong advice. Farmers have shared stories about trying to open cases of arson, destruction of property and trespassing at their local stations only to be turned away.
“More worrying is the number of farmers who have indicated that their cases are thrown out by the local courts because the courts “only deal with serious crimes”. Pappas said criminals pretending to be the traditional authority to illegally sell off farm land was common practice.
“Farmers have begun to organise themselves and work more closely with senior district police as well as elected public representatives,” said Pappas.
The first meeting took place on August 28.
“The group resolved to start reporting all cases as it emerged that many people had given up on reporting to the police. WhatsApp groups will also be established, with police officials on them for faster response.
“The DA’s spokesperson on community safety will be engaging the MEC on the issue of the lack of vehicles while the DA’s spokesperson on agriculture will engage with national colleagues about court cases that have been thrown out,” said Pappas.
Provincial Saps spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said a case of malicious damage to property was being investigated by Umhlali Saps.
