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GOVT: MBONDZELA RESIDENTS ON FARM ILLEGALLY

17/05/2024 06:47:00 Melisa Msweli and Sithembile Hlatshwayo

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NHLANGANO – Government says the residents of Mbondzela are residing illegally on the farm, which is owned by a liSwati family.

Mbondzela Farm No.19 is located along the road to Gege from Nhlangano, in the Shiselweni Region. The farm is owned by Sandile Simelane of Mahamba Gorge (Pty) Ltd. On Wednesday, farm dwellers of Mbondzela went to deliver a petition to the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan). They alleged that they were evicted because the farm owner had plans to give the farm to the Taiwan Embassy.

They had also delivered another one on Tuesday to Gege Inkhundla, with 12 demands. In a bid to set the record straight on the now explosive eviction at the rural farm, Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo cited interventions and rulings by former ministers of Natural Resources and Energy, who ruled in favour of the farm owner.

Resisted

He said whenever farm dwellers resisted to move, they compromised investor confidence. Nxumalo said the family had no connections with any country or government. “The owner of this farm has had many engagements with the residents, where the former informed the latter that he required the portion of the land that they occupied for development.

“However, the residents have consistently resisted the proposed development and have even become violent and damaged property while doing so,” reads part of government’s statement.Nxumalo said the matter between the owner of the farm and the residents was heard by the region’s farm dwellers tribunal, which ruled that the residents be evicted from the farm.

Decision

The residents appealed the decision of the regional tribunal to the Central Farm Dwellers Tribunal, which also ruled in favour of the owner of the farm. He said the residents then appealed to the now late former Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Peter Bhembe, who ruled in July 2020 that the parties must negotiate agreements.

Nxumalo said the parties failed to negotiate agreements, because the residents rejected the terms that were proposed by the owner of the farm. Instead, he said, the residents became violent while resisting eviction. “The residents then went back to the then Acting Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Jabulani Mabuza, last year to report that the owner of the farm was not complying with the ruling of the late minister.

“The owner of the farm mentioned to the then acting minister that the people who were benefitting from his property were squatters and not the owner who invested capital to purchase the farm,” said Nxumalo. The government spokesperson said former Minister Mabuza convened several meetings with the residents and the owner of the farm, adding that he informed the residents that it was not in their best interest to live at the mercy of some person and encouraged them to look for alternative land, so that they can live in peace.

Farm

It was said by Nxumalo in the statement that Mabuza also requested the owner of the farm to offer some help to the residents, so that they could resettle outside the farm. The farm owner is said to have offered to assist the residents with the construction of structures for them (residents) on a piece of land allocated to them by the Mashobeni Royal Kraal.

The farm owner, according to Nxumalo, also offered to remove the graves of their family members when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy was last seized with this matter. Nxumalo said it was common that, when squatters reside in a property that the owner requires to develop, the dwellers then resist vacating and even begin to challenge the legal ownership.

“Notwithstanding this particular incident, the government wishes to highlight that the law frowns upon illegal occupation of private property. Farm dwellers and owners are both protected under the rule of law,” he added.
Nxumalo said they encouraged citizens to show full respect and recognition of private property, whether it belongs to individuals or corporate citizens.

He said lack of respect for private property puts the country in bad light in terms of attracting investments for purposes of job creation and development. Nxumalo said citizens were supposed to respect the rule of law at all times, adding that no amount of noise would sway the country from its constitutional obligations.

It is worth noting that the Mbondzela court case is still pending, after the dwellers went to appeal their matter. It was gathered that the case would be heard in court before the end of the month. Responding to the statement by the government spokesperson, Mbondzela residents questioned if Nxumalo was aware that the matter was pending in court, for him to issue a statement as if the matter had been finalised.

They also called for him to give them a court order that permitted the owner of the farm to demolish their houses while the case was pending in court. “Since he has turned to be the owner’s mouthpiece over a matter that is in court, he needs to produce a court order that permited the farm owner to demolish our homes,” remarked one of the residents.

They shared that in his statement, Nxumalo failed to mention that their houses were demolished and they had to spend nights in the cold, adding that he was picking sides in his statement. “He cares more about investors than our well-being, safety and security. This is strange as he should have just kept quiet,” said another. According to the residents, demolitions are carried out in broad daylight, in the presence of the police, when there is a court order. They said Nxumalo did not mention any of that in his statement.

Land Activist Senator Dlamini, on the other hand, quoted an incident where the demolition of 400 homes was stopped by the now Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala, when he was a judge back in 2010. A Times of Eswatini article dated November 11, 2010, quoted Maphalala at the Nhlangano High Court, stating that in terms of the Constitution, which supersedes the Swazi Administration Order, no structure must be demolished or evictions carried out without a court order.

When Government Spokesperson Nxumalo was later reached for comment on the resident’s sentiments, he questioned if he had mentioned anything about a court order. He said the only thing that they did as a government was to issue the statement and they were not going to say anything more.

“I am not going to respond to them and you either. We have issued a statement and that is all we stand with,” he said. Nxumalo said they only narrated that to date, what had been done by government in trying to address the matter of Mbondzela farm. He added that government was not saying their houses were demolished through a court order. Nxumalo said as government, they knew that the matter was pending in court; something that the residents were also aware of.