The Dlamini family
have, for as long as memory, lived in a valley on a farm near Dalton. When Mrs
Dlamini, the wife of the household head, died earlier this year, the family
requested permission to bury her in the family’s graves but were refused. They
went to the Land Claims Court but lost the case because the graves, visible
across the field, are now different farm despite the absense of a fence. After
13 weeks of being in a mortuary, Mrs Dlamini was buried in the Dalton cemetery.
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After Mrs Cele’s
husband died, the owner of the farm where she lives in Nottingham Road tried to
evict her and her children. Because she has no where to go, she defended herself
and has recently rejected the farmer’s offer of R3000 to settle out of court.
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Some years ago a
group of farmers asked the families on their farms outside Vryheid to move to a
new farm that would be purchased for them by the Department of Land Affairs.
They did so, lured by promises of work, land ownership and development. Today,
their cattle have died, the elderly can’t leave the area because there’s no road
and there’s a desperate daily shortage of water. Download PDF
(926k)
The Jele’s have
lived on a farm as labour tenants outside Utrecht for three or four generations.
Without consulting them, the farmer initiated changes to their conditions,
restricting cattle numbers and threatening eviction. The Jele’s were forced to
respond to protect their lives and property. Download PDF
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Many farmers have
initiated practices of charging for grazing in a response to the Labour Tenants
Act and minimum wage legislation on farms. Obeg Masondo, who lives on a farm
outside Utrecht, talks about the impact of this. Download PDF
(114k)
Zabalaza Mshengu
remembers when black people lived on the land known as Ashburton. All his life
he has lived in this area and swears to continue doing so despite the fact that
his wife and children were evicted as occupiers. Because of his age, the
eviction could not apply to him, but he now lives alone with his family’s
graves. Download PDF
(493k)
The people living
in a shack settlement below the Greytown municipal cemetery are known as the
Tent Town people because that’s what they lived in for years ago their eviction
in 1997 from a farm in the area. They were once labour tenants. Today, they’ve
lost faith in the legal system and the Department of Land Affairs that their
situation will ever change. Download PDF
(539k)
Siphiwe Ngwenya, a
labour tenant on a farm outside Bergville, successfully defended his eviction in
mid 2004. However, he’s lost his job and the farmer keeps threatening to impound
his remaining source of livelihood, his cattle. Download PDF
(137k)
