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WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2014
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Evicted from farm
FREE
Family removed after not responding to court decision } Tladi Moloi BETHLEHEM. – After spending 39 years on the Nooitgedacht farm outside Bethlehem, the Khumalos were evicted and dumped under the trees in Lamond Street in Bohlokong, Bethlehem. Mafitla Simon Khumalo (71) and his wife, Mirriam (68), were evicted last Thursday following a court order which was submitted to them. Simon and Mirriam, the parents of 13 children, were left homeless with six of their 13 children and three grandchildren. They were left on the street with their furniture and Express Eastern Free State was informed that 28 head of Simon’s cattle were dumped at the Môrelig Cemetery. It is alleged that one cow died there. The Dihlabeng Local Municipality assisted the family in moving their furniture from where it was dumped. Apparently the Khumalo family and the Janmark Eiendomstrust, the new owners of the farm, had been fighting a legal battle over the farm since 2010. In the end the court ruled in favour of the trust and the Khumalos had to vacate the farm, but they never did. Mirriam said she was shocked when the people forced their way into her house without any explanation. “I was still outside. I followed them. When I got there they were taking the things and loading them onto the truck,” Mirriam said, crying. “I had R3 000 under the mattress with which I was going to buy clothes for the kids and that money has disappeared.” She said the only thing that they had said to her, was that they had to leave the farm because they did not need them there. “I tried to talk to them, but one of the police officers who was with them said, ‘I will tell them to beat you now’,” Simon said. “They gave me a paper and explained that it said I had to vacate the farm. “I have 28 cattle.” A certain man known to Khumalo as Itumeleng of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform arrived at the place where the furniture was dumped, driving in a white bakkie.
‘I was still outside. I followed them. When I got there they were taking the things and loading them onto the truck’ – Mirriam Khumalo
MIRRIAM KHUMALO sitting under a tree after she was evicted from the Nooitgedacht farm outside Bethlehem.
THE angry Mafitla Simon Khumalo.
He refused to talk to Express Eastern Free State, saying he had no authority to talk to the press. However, when responding to the angry people who had gathered at the scene, he said Khumalo was legally evicted. “He should have left the farm a long time ago, but he never listens. Our lawyers informed him about the court
family with the furniture and livestock. “We also offered them accommodation, but they told us that they would prefer to stay with the family in Bohlokong. The cattle are kept at the Piteli Family Trust Farm and the furniture is stored with the municipality,” Maitse said. ) Read more on p. 4.
decision,” he said. “No, I did not come here to respond to those questions,” he said as onlookers piled on more questions. “I only came to check if the old man had his cattle,” he said before he left. Tshediso Maitse of the Marketing and Communication Unit of the Dihlabeng Local Municipality confirmed that the municipality had indeed assisted the
Photos: Tladi Moloi