An interim court order prohibiting land invaders from entering two farms in KwaZulu-Natal was granted in the High Court on Friday.
|||An interim court order prohibiting land invaders from entering two farms in KwaZulu-Natal was granted in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Friday.
Farm owners in Mtubatuba, in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, were granted the order by Judge Fikile Mokgohloa.
The order forbids invaders from entering the properties, orchestrating invasions, and “selling plots”.
Andre de Wet, counsel for the two property owners, said the land invaders had threatened the owners with death.
Neil Jorgensen, owner of a 35-hectare farm, said in an affidavit that he had been assaulted so often that he could no longer stay on the farm.
The other applicant was the owner of a 74-hectare plot.
The respondents are the alleged ringleaders of the invaders, Fani Ndwandwe and M Mthethwa.
Jorgensen said that on February 06, 2012 he saw pegs being knocked into the ground, apparently demarcating properties and even roads, and two weeks later trucks unloaded building equipment on the farms.
He reported the matter to police who told him the invaders had laid historical claim to the land.
The police said they therefore regarded the land invasions as civil matters and as such were not simply trespassing cases.
No land redistribution claims have been initiated on the farms concerned.
Jorgenson said the invaders slaughtered animals and sugarcane was destroyed.
He said it was imperative to nip the building in the bud, because once structures were erected the land owners would incur enormous legal costs to get rid of the invaders. - Sapa