Kauphile Panyaza, who was born on a thriving 546ha dairy farm and called it home for more than 50 years before it was bought by the government, now shares a small RDP house in Cape Town's crowded Khayelitsha township.
“I wake up every day and think about planting a flower, but I have no land,” the 64-year-old told the Sunday Times.
Eversley Farm in Qumrha, Eastern Cape, had been earmarked for land restitution and Panyaza and other former farmworkers were expected to benefit when the government purchased it for R5.6m 14 years ago. It now lies fallow.
Many families, whose parents are buried on the farm, were forced to leave after a fallout with a tenant appointed by the department of land reform and rural development.
Panyaza’s wife Zolisa, who was at the forefront of a fight to have the farm returned to former farmworkers, died in a hail of bullets on the farm in September 2021, along with their 20-year-old son Xolisa.
No arrests have been made over the murders of his wife and son. “I buried them in the township. I could not bury them next to my father because we worried about access to the farm.”
Panyaza said he was kidnapped and assaulted in 2014, at the height of their conflict with the tenant.
“I was born on that farm, and my father is buried there. I have no other home. I came to Cape Town because I could not get help in the Eastern Cape.”
He said seven families on the farm each had up to seven children. Shortly after it was purchased by the government, the department leased the farm for five years to a tenant — marking the start of its decline.
“The farm teemed with dairy cows — more than 80 cows and calves,” said Panyaza.
“By 2015, there was not a single cow left. [The tenant] sold all the cows to a local butchery. During his tenure, we had no source of income. Other families relied on state grants, hoping the government would come to their rescue.”
“There is no day that passes without an effort to resolve this debacle. Most farmworkers are scattered. Most left in 2014. They were born on the farm, and their parents are buried there.
“Eversley Farm was productive when the previous owner ran it. Dairy trucks were filled twice a day. The dairy was fully equipped, but now it is in a sorry state. The farmhouse is dilapidated, the farm is overgrown with black wattle and the fence stolen.”
Former farmworker David Welani confirmed Panyaza’s account. The ailing father of nine now rents a house in a township in Qumrha. “Three people have been shot and killed on that farm since it was sold to the government,” said Welani.
“The previous farm owners looked after us very well. We had no complaints. Trouble started after the government bought the farm. My father is also buried there, but I cannot visit his grave.
“We understood that the farm was meant to benefit us. There were many cattle. The farm was thriving and fully equipped. We have no pension; the government was supposed to assist us. We are scared for our lives.”
Documents show the farm is owned by the “National Government of the Republic of South Africa”. It was purchased in March 2011 for R5.6m. The lease agreement, signed by the then chief director in the department of land reform and rural development, set rental at R97,000 per quarter and confirmed the tenant would return the farm in good condition after the lease ended on May 31 2016.
A document on an official department of land reform and rural development letterhead dated July 5 2020 recognised Zolisa Panyaza as a “long-term occupier” of the farm.
The farm has been the subject of parliamentary questions for the past seven years. In response to a question in 2018, the department listed the former tenant as the “person currently benefiting from or using the land.”
The Sunday Times understands the former tenant has died.
In 2020, the department said someone had illegally “occupied and [was] refusing to vacate” the farm, adding legal proceedings were under way to obtain an eviction order and “trespassing and housebreaking charges” had been laid against” him.
Department spokesperson Linda Page said: “The matter is before court. In light of this, we cannot respond at this time.”
Former MP Thandeka Mbabama, who previously visited the farm said, “It was in a terrible state. Nothing was happening on the farm at all. It was vandalised. Former farmworkers told me a person who claimed ownership visited from time to time. But he knew nothing about farming. The farmhouse was decaying. The whole farm was a mess. Former farmworkers were scared to show me around because of the killings.”
DA deputy spokesperson on land reform and rural development MP Bonginkosi Madikizela said: “This story is familiar wherever we go as committee members. The reality is that the failures of the land reform project involve government officials working with certain politicians. This is what we hear, whether in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, or the Eastern Cape.”
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