Lolo Madonsela A trustee of Hellberg Farm just outside of Vryheid, Horst Hellberg, has responded to allegations by the community following a meeting hosted by the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture from the Provincial Legislature. In his response, Hellberg said that, “For unknown reasons, the KZN Legislature and the Portfolio Committee never visited the farm nor bothered to engage me about the matter. Equally concerning is that I was never invited to the meeting, which one might have expected, had constructive engagement been hoped for.” During the meeting that was held at Cecil Emmett the previous weekend, the community from Hellberg Farm alleged that he demolished houses, denied them access to water, blocked access roads into the farm (including a public road) and that he had built where their forefathers are buried. Hellberg said in a letter, “All the people who live on the Hellberg farms, as reported last week, currently do not work for Hellberg Farms but continue to occupy the labour quarters where they were housed at the time for their employment purposes. These houses are fitted with both running water and electrical infrastructure. The water is supplied along a pipeline installed some 20 years ago to improve the quality of living of my employees. Unfortunately, the water spring source ran dry during the winter months in August 2020. I did not cut off the water supply as reported. “Over a period of time, the Hellberg community have tapped the prepaid electrical meters installed. They have also wrecked the Eskom electricity infrastructure and intimidated the Eskom staff. They even stole their vehicle keys during a routine line inspection.” He further said, “Over the last four months members of the Hellberg farming community decided to expand their living area and started building illegal houses randomly on the Hellberg farms, without prior consultation or engagement as if the land solely belonged to them.” After Hellberg tried to engage the dwellers, he says he was snubbed, forcing him to go to court to get an interdict to prevent the farm dwellers from randomly erecting houses on the farm and demolish those houses that had been illegally built. This court order was ignored and defied. Hellberg says he was compelled to enforce the order through the sheriff of the court, supported by security and the police, as he himself had to escape from a hail of stones thrown at him. Also read: VRYHEID: Parliament visits Hellberg community Regarding a land claim issue, Hellberg stated that after a labour tenant land claim was lodged by 33 claimants falsely claiming historic rights in respect of the property in 2018, he endeavoured to meaningfully engage the community in an attempt to find common ground and a peaceful win-win result for the parties. Hellberg engaged the claimants and other farm dwellers who did not lodge claims, and together constructively found peaceful solutions and agreements for their respective plights. “Unfortunately, there are a group of farm dwellers who have refused to engage peacefully and chosen instead to resort to violence and crime, making peaceful co-existence on the farms very difficult indeed,” said Hellberg. He said he was at the mercy of the farm dwellers who caused chaos on the farm and relayed that, “On August 28, 2020, the community had a protest on the farm over the water issue, supported by a contingent of EFF members. 300 metres of Bio-Security Fencing was torn down in the presence of the police, and no less than 17 fires were started in the timber plantations and grazing lands, causing well over R1.5 million worth of damage. The SAPS are yet to arrest the persons answerable for this arson. The waterline that carries the water to the Hellberg community houses was damaged by these fires and even when the summer rains return, these pipes will be inoperable.” During October this year, Hellberg says that his fourth hay shed with grass bales in a five-year period was burnt down by one of those members who prefers violence to peace. The police are yet to arrest the arsonist. Hellberg himself (and through others) has caused no less than 22 criminal cases to be opened at Vryheid police station since January 2020 alone, relating to incidents of killing of cows; arson; intimidation of labour in the timber compartments; theft of farming, fencing and irrigation equipment; cutting down of Eskom power-lines; and trespassing. “These matters have now been handed over to the provincial police department, as combined damages in excess of well over R2 million have now been caused by members of the Hellberg community farm dwellers. The investigations into these matters are unfortunately not done according to the National Crime Prevention Strategy.” Regarding the allegations on the closure of the public road, he said, “I was accused at the parliamentary meeting of closing off the district road that leads to the Hellberg farm (known as the D23), preventing the community access to their homes. This road has flooded at the Grootgewacht bridge for over eight years. The Roads Department has failed for eight years to repair the roads, claiming a lack of funds, available machinery or even diesel.” During August 2020, Hellberg says he got stuck in and on his own account repaired the bridge at a cost of R85,000 so that the road can now again be safely used by the community in the summer months. “Unfortunately, the D23 district road was indeed closed for a while to get the job done, which could not be avoided. The D22 district road does not even pass the Hellberg community, which begs the questions why the community raised this as a concern!” Hellberg’s private plantation roads, which he says are maintained at his cost, are all on his private property. “These private roads are all leisurely traversed by the community at their leisure.” In last week’s report Vryheid Herald stated that Cllr Maria Mabaso has been fighting the issues complained of for years. Hellberg said, “She has not been anywhere close to the farm for well over three years to listen to the concerns of the Hellberg farming communities and even less the owners of the Hellberg farms.” He recalled a protest from 2009 during which Mabaso, who was FEDCO’s (Farm Eviction and Development Committee) chairperson at the time, bused in over 150 people to the Hellberg Farm to protest against the owner (Hellberg), other farmers in the area and the SAPS. Hellberg alleged that she did so for political gain. After the protest, 124 people lost their jobs. “The problem is now that many hungry people who have not found work elsewhere are resorting to crime to feed their families,” Hellberg said. Cllr Maria Mabaso stressed that she was not the cause of the job losses. “It is true the march did take place and that I led that march,” she said. She alleged that, prior to the march, employees had been fired. They were also upset about salary deductions that Hellberg ascribed to rent and mealie meal. According to Mabaso, attempts at amicably dealing with the unhappiness of the farm workers were not successful. “His response was that we cannot tell him what to do in his farm, that’s what led to that march,” she said. She added that the march was supported by then director of community safety sent by Bheki Cele. Hellberg also expressed his concerns about the meeting, indicating that he was never contacted by the Legislature nor by the Portfolio Committee about the meeting and that he was not invited to it. In the letter, he indicated that, “At the time of this article going to print, Mr Hellberg has still not been contacted by the Portfolio Committee. Hellberg concludes that it is clear that all the frustrations experienced are due to political agendas and the lack of government departments intervening, failing both the farming communities as well as the land owners, as constructive engagement by all the parties is required, which should be facilitated at governmental level.” KZN Legislature Communications Manager Wonder Hlongwa said, “We tried to get hold of Mr Hellberg via phone call but did not succeed. We were in no way trying to undermine him. However, we are going to write him a letter this time and invite him to another meeting, because he is a very important stakeholder and we need to engage in these matters in order to find solutions.” Currently, Hellberg has 22 cases opened with the SAPS, which include arson to a plantation allegedly by EFF (of which he estimated the damage to be R1.5 million). Captain Nkocy Gwala, spokesperson for SAPS Zululand Cluster, confirmed that there was a case open. “There are no witnesses in this case, except that Mr Hellberg has said that he saw people from the EFF on his farm and trees were burnt, but no one saw any person burning the trees.” Captain Gwala could not confirm if anyone from the EFF had been called in for questioning. “I could not confirm that; I will have to find the investigating officer.” Regional Chairperson of the EFF, Thulani Ndlovu said, “We do not know that there was a case against us. What we are aware of is that Hellberg opened a case of arson in the morning before we even got to the farm. The fire only started after we had left the farm, we were at the police station to open a case by the time the fire started”.
