s the worst intimidation I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Jaap de Villiers, 76, of the farm Uitval near Vryheid, said at the weekend.
A farm manager in the Melmoth area, Ken Eva, was murdered at the beginning of the year in a land dispute with a neighbouring community.
Police accompanied two representatives of the group to the farmhouse, to hand over a memorandum to De Villiers. The memorandum accused him of poisoning people living on tribal land adjoining his farm, and of shooting their goats.
De Villiers denied the allegations. “I never go on to their land and I sell nothing to them. How could I poison them?” However, he said he does fine people or impound their animals if they steal grazing on his farm. He also has a big problem with animals getting caught in snares put up illegally on his land.
His farm is bordered on three sides by tribal land after Inkosi Bheki Zulu bought the farms from two commercial farmers several years ago. According to De Villiers, no land claim on his farm has been registered. – Own Correspondent
20.9.2007
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SA farmer intimidated
PIETERMARITZBURG - A group of invaders has given a KwaZulu-Natal cattle farmer until September 28 to vacate his farm.
He is considering laying a charge of intimidation with the police after his workers were threatened on Friday, and a fire was started on the farm later in the day.
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