Farm dwellers and emerging farmers clash, with government at the centre, over land allocation

First published by GroundUp.

Farm dwellers, whose families have lived on Bapsfontein Farm (portion 5 of Varkfontein) near Bronkhorstspruit since 1954, have taken control of 160 of its 222 hectares, claiming that they are the rightful beneficiaries of the land.

This has given rise to tensions between the 250 farm dwellers and the farmers who were given a lease on the land by the Department of Agriculture in 2007. The land was bought by the government in 1999. It was later leased to Buda Farming.

The farm dwellers say the previous owners, recorded as Velcich and Martins, promised them they would not be evicted after the sale to government. The son-in-law of Ralph Velcich also gave them a letter in 2014 verifying the people who had been on the farm since 1954, most of them over 70 years old.

But the farm dwellers’ tenure has been insecure. Besides the tensions with Buda Farming, there was an attempted land occupation by people from Thembisa, but it was stopped by the local municipality. They say they also faced a threat from coal mining interests. People, who they think were government officials, came to the farm and said there would be prospecting for coal.

The farm dwellers are being assisted by the Workers Occupiers Tenants and Dwellers Forum, which is questioning the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform’s “appointment of beneficiaries”. The farm dwellers have also gone to the Public Protector.

Johannes Mokoena, president of the forum, said, “We have been told that this farm is sitting on a mining [discovery], which is one of the reasons why farm dwellers have been suffering … When government buys a farm it is supposed to give priority to allocation of land to farm dwellers.”

In 2019, the farm dwellers formed a cooperative initiative with a commercial farming enterprise, Lakat Trading, to grow maize. It distributes a portion of the proceeds to farm dwellers. They recently harvested the maize crop and are preparing for the next planting.

Rural Development says this is an illegal arrangement and only Buda Farming has the legal right to farm the land.

The families live in old one-bedroomed farm cottages. Some have built shacks around the compound for their growing families. There is no electricity, despite appeals to the municipality. There is also no tap water.

William Msiza, whose family have lived on the farm for over 50 years and whose mother worked on the farm for the previous owner, said the previous owners sold the farm on condition government would “empower us as beneficiaries who would then run projects such as chicken farming and maize planting”.

“The government fails to acknowledge us and our families, but we refuse to give up. By starting a maize farming cooperative we have taken what rightfully belongs to us as farm dwellers,” he said.

Mphikeleli Patrick Buda and Sarah Buda say they have lost almost R2-million because they are unable to use the land they have leased from government. (Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro)