Land Invasion South African style

DISGRUNTLED land-reform beneficiaries have invaded a farm near Malelane in Mpumalanga, ousting its managers and assuming control of the farm workers and the running of the farm. (from the Business Day)

The 3200ha farm, Foroma, is part of Tenbosch, a R10bn land-restitution project, SA’s biggest by value. It is one of several farms handed back to four communities who lost their land under apartheid legislation since 1923. In Tenbosch, farming had slowed down on some of the farms. (Slowed? They mean to say the farm has slipped into subsistence farming)

Agribusiness Umlimi, which controls the joint-venture farm management company Makhombo for the Lugedlane community, has confirmed the land invasion, saying a group of people armed with knives and machetes arrived on Foroma last Thursday, threatened managers and seized control of the farm.

The invasion of Foroma farm comes among other indications that the Tenbosch project, the government’s showcase land restitution project, is beginning to fall apart.

Attorney Richard Spoor said the trustess had entrenched themselves by selling membership to the community and then setting up what amounted to pyramid schemes, which paid out unsustainable dividends to cronies.

Although there has been no profit so far, Makhombo pays "the community" about R180000 a month in rental.

Through Makhombo, Umlimi has disbursed about R3,5m to Mjejane Trust on behalf of the Lugedlane community in the past three years, but none of the income was passed on to the community, the group of concerned community members allege. (We want the farm, we want the money, we want the car, we want the edukation, we want the health care, we want...)