The Mahlangu home was set alight last year and a family member slain. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen Families living on Waterval Farm in Dithabeng, in Mpumalanga’s Thembisile Hani Municipality claim their ancestral homes have become a place of terror. This after two residents were murdered and several houses torched, with some families forced to flee the land they have occupied for generations in fear of their lives.
The allegations are contained in a formal complaint submitted to multiple authorities, including the Land Claims Commission, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), police and the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development. According to the residents, they have lived in peace on the land on which their families settled as far back as 1910, until 2022, when a new farmer moved in and turned their lives upside down. They say they were first ordered to reduce their livestock, ploughing fields and then intimidated, threatened and pressured.
In three years, at least four houses have been burnt down, two residents shot dead at their homes at night and their livestock poisoned or shot dead. As a result, several families, including the Sibanyoni, Mahlangu and Tlou households, left their homesteads last year. Others, including members of the Madisa and Mbonani families, remain on the land and continue to live in fear of their lives and property.
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At least seven cases relating to murder, arson, malicious damage to property, assault with intent to cause grievously bodily harm and livestock poisoning have been opened at Verena police station. Despite this, the families say no arrests have been made, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the police response to the alleged reign of terror.
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