Agri-Villages Will Do Nothing To Secure Our Tenure On Farms

I’m a labour tenant on Jericho farm in Utrecht, under the Emadlangeni Local Municipality. I have lived here with my family for many years. There is talk that the municipality wants to move us to an agri-village. For me this is just another way of evicting us. No one has asked us if we want to move.

We submitted a claim over this land under the Labour Tenant Act years ago and are still waiting. We asked the Department of Rural Development about our claim and were sent from pillar to post. We are living in limbo and cannot plan a meaningful future for ourselves. 

Over the years the land owner has curtailed our rights to graze our livestock, access to water and other resources that we depend on to survive. 

An official from Madlangeni Municipality told us recently that we will never get the title deed. Instead, they want to move labour tenants like us to an agri-village where, they say, they will bring development. We were not asked, we were told  this. 

We belong on this land. Our ancestral graves are here, our history, our heritage. If we are moved, we will lose it all, all that makes us who we are. We have worked this land for several generations of land owners, we have learnt our rights as labour tenants. We want secure tenure and development support here on this land where we belong. We don’t want to move to an agri-village with a promise of development. We call on the municipality to listen to our plea and not take decisions without us. 

We are saying  “Nothing for us, without us”!

Phansi ngama agri-village, Muwubuye Umhlaba Wethu!

11 June 2015

by Ntombi Makhubu, Labour Tenant, Utrecht KwaZulu Natal