An ongoing land dispute between farm workers and farming couple Rodney and Leonie Yendall has been steeped in hostility and confusion and is growing more tense.
An ongoing land dispute between farm workers and farming couple Rodney and Leonie Yendall has been steeped in hostility and confusion and is growing more tense.
The Yendalls approached the municipality to convert a portion of their farm Aloe Ridge into an agri-village, where agricultural and arts projects would be set up for the benefit of local farmers and Manley Flats residents.
In doing so, the people living on the farm would have to be relocated to a 53 hectare plot of land nearby. But this has caused a dispute between the Yendalls and the occupants of the farm, who are refusing to relocate.
In March last year former provincial Agricultural MEC Gugile Nkwinti intervened and both parties came to an understanding that the farm residents would move and that all their livestock and belongings would be relocated.
In June last year, after the Yendalls had removed the goal-posts from a soccer field as per the agreement, the farm residents got angryand started vandalising the property.
According to Leonie, fences, water tanks and pipes were broken and poaching with snares and hunting dogs took place.
She also says that the workers neglected to look after the cattle and they have since interbred,
affecting the Nguni stud farm.
In response, the spokesperson for the Aloe Ridge residents Bonelwa Mbambatho says: “These are all false accusations and they are not sure if it is one of us because they do not have enough proof, it might be people from other places.
We got angry when they destroyed our soccer field without letting us know.” According to Mbambatho and other farm residents, the Yendalls are not the rightful owners of the farm; Mike Sullivan who currently runs a business in Port Alfred is believed to be the owner.
“The Sullivans had given us that land way before the Yendalls,” Mbambatho insisted. Leonie says that this is not true as they acquired the farm in a barter deal in 2007.
In an IDP imbizo on Sunday at Manley Flats, Makana Executive Mayor Vumile Lwana said that the 53 hectare land sale has been processed by the provincial office of Land Affairs but still requires final authorisation by the municipality before the residents can relocate.
Before this happens the municipality must organise housing, water and power supply, recreational and facilities for the livestock.
“While the application for the land is going through, we will settle an application with the Housing Department to build new houses,” said Lwana.
According to Lwana the municipality’s service delivery to farms is limited as they are owned by private farmers.
However, they plan to continue with the Manley Flats land application. Zilindile Onceya, a pensioner who has lived on the farm since 1968, lost his son a month ago and requested that his son be buried alongside other family members in the farm’s graveyard.
The Onceyas lost the High Court case. The verdict only allowed the family to conduct the funeral on the farm and bury the body elsewhere.
According to Onceya, on their way to bury their son at Mayfield Cemetery in Grahamstown, they had to stop and open the coffin for Leonie who demanded to see the corpse and confirm that the body had not been buried on the farm.
This saddened Onceya who says, “This has never happened before, the Yendalls have no respect for us. They treat us like we are nothing to them, this is a shock to the whole of South Africa.
How can one reveal the dead in the public like that? it is unspeakable and total disrespect”. Leonie argued that she was only following the legal actions specified by the court.
Meanwhile, Leonie does not see the agrivillage project taking off with the residents’ intolerable behaviour. She is currently busy organising a formal eviction notice to be served to the residents, who are still refusing to leave the farm and are awaiting for the land sale to come through.
Rodney attempted to clear the air between his family and the residents in a statement he made at the imbizo when he said that the residents had overlooked the good work they had been doing for the community. “We have to work together well. Isandla sihlamba esinye (One hand washes the other).”
