Retired worker fights eviction from farm

Hemps

Hemps

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http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/retired-worker-fights-eviction-from-farm/

A retired farmworker with 24 children faces eviction on Monday from a Kei Mouth farm where he has worked for 27 years. But the government has vowed to defend the family and a lawyer has been appointed to take up the fight.
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The former employers of Andazi Menziwe, 68, have given him until Monday to find alternative accommodation for his two wives, 23 of his children aged from onemonth to 37, two dogs, four goats and 10 cows.

The pensioner was served with a notice of termination of residence two weeks ago by lawyers representing Quick Traders 1040cc, the company which owns the farm.

The law firm said Menziwe’s right of residence arose from an employment agreement between him and their client, but Menziwe was no longer employed by their client.

Menziwe has also been accused of “enabling and assisting unauthorised persons to establish dwelling” on their client’s property.

The notice of termination of right of residence seen by the Saturday Dispatch also claims Menziwe:

Has refused to allow his former employer to identify the unauthorised persons;

Has erected unapproved buildings on the farm;

Has previously refused to reside on any portion of the farm other than the portion he is currently occupying; and

Is in possession of cattle which undermines the character of the game farm business.

Quick Traders 1040CC’s attorney, Conrad Battenhaussen, ends the letter saying the company intended to use Menziwe’s allocated plot of land for economic purposes.

Battenhaussen yesterday said he would not comment and invoked the privilege of attorney-client confidentiality. Duncan Batlart, who manages the farm, said he was “totally in the dark” and was only acting under instructions from above.

Menziwe said he had lived on the farm since September 15 1987, when he was employed by a Spanish businessman currently living abroad.


He said: “The purported unauthorised persons the lawyers are talking about are my children. I do not live with strangers here. Where am I now supposed to live?”

Menziwe’s father and mother are buried on the farm.

“My employer built all the six houses that you are now seeing today,” he said.

In March Batlart arrived, cordoned off Menziwe’s home and gave orders that his 10 cattle were prohibited from grazing outside the fence separating the farm and dwellings.

“My livestock have no water to drink because of these restrictions.

“I am paying rent and have been denied electricity,” said Menziwe.

He said he had since forwarded his complaint to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Assistant director in the department, Babini Mbewu, said yesterday they had already appointed a lawyer to fight the eviction.

“We are very prepared to fight this. We have also started negotiations with attorneys representing the company,” he said. — [email protected]
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Wonder what the outcome would be?
The houses where built by the employer as well it seems.
 
We have staff living on our farms. Its the same families that have lived there since the late 1800`s. I could never imagine chasing one of them off the land. They have their own village and everything.
 
ghoti said:
We have staff living on our farms. Its the same families that have lived there since the late 1800`s. I could never imagine chasing one of them off the land. They have their own village and everything.
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Seems the land owner has issue with the other 23 children living on the land, the guy almost has his own village.
 
Last edited:
The former employers of Andazi Menziwe, 68, have given him until Monday to find alternative accommodation for his two wives, 23 of his children aged from onemonth to 37, two dogs, four goats and 10 cows.
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Thats why farmers should not allow cheap informal settlements on their farms. 23 children? I guess the 1 month old baby is also the 68 year old mans child.
 
Hemps said:
http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/retired-worker-fights-eviction-from-farm/





Wonder what the outcome would be?
The houses where built by the employer as well it seems.
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This is disgusting :mad:

Our loyal workers have living rights on the farm. Our farm manager has been working for the family over 30 years. 2 of his sons also work there and they have been there about 20 years. They will never be asked to leave the farm, they have spent just about their whole lives there serving the family's interest.

I'm dumbstruck. He served them for 27 years and they want to kick him out?
 
Pitbull said:
This is disgusting :mad:

Our loyal workers have living rights on the farm. Our farm manager has been working for the family over 30 years. 2 of his sons also work there and they have been there about 20 years. They will never be asked to leave the farm, they have spent just about their whole lives there serving the family's interest.

I'm dumbstruck. He served them for 27 years and they want to kick him out?
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But 27 people and 10 cows, goats, dogs etc roaming free through the farm utilizing its resources for one worker is a bit rough.
I think the real problem is the worker is abusing his employer and had he been more respectful there would not have been any issue.
 
Beachless said:
But 27 people and 10 cows, goats, dogs etc roaming free through the farm utilizing its resources for one worker is a bit rough.
I think the real problem is the worker is abusing his employer and had he been more respectful there would not have been any issue.
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By all means. I mean if his kids don't want to work on the farm they can go work somewhere else and move. If not evict them. But to kick him out? I'm pretty sure some of those kids work on the farm anyway as well.
 
I think one of the big issues is maybe this:
Has previously refused to reside on any portion of the farm other than the portion he is currently occupying;
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They tried to cater for his needs, but he refused to be moved to a different portion of the farm. Knowing the exact reason behind the refusal would be informative.

I know of farmers providing housing off the farm for this exact reason. Once you have workers on your farm, they are there for life, even if they do not work for you any more.
 
Can't help but feel he is abusing his employer. So what happens if his 23 children end up having 23 children... and they have 23 children each? Gosh. Give another 100 - 150 years and that farm will be over run. lol. This man has a plan :p.

He should at least be willing to relocate. The fact that he does not want to reside on another portion of the farm is quite possibly the real problem.
 
24 kids, one as old as 37? Two wives? Feck these people. If he'd had two kids he might have been able to educate them properly and his gigantic family wouldn't be someone else's problem right now.
 
Hemps said:
Seems the land owner has issue with the other 23 children living on the land, the guy almost has his own village.
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So, let him have a little bit of the land for him and his children. If he was smart he would try empower those people as much as possible. We did that and now we have super loyal staff. If a taxi comes onto our property our staff chase it away. They look after the land as well. We also allow our staff to run their cattle with ours. So they get inoculated and treated. Doing this means the staff look after our cattle super well :D We dont really have stock theft. If totsis come onto our farm, they deal with them, not us.

I dont know the particulars for this case so I dont wanna comment on if this guy is good or bad, but I do know from experience that working and enabling your staff produces wonderful results.

Our staff are so loyal, that during Apartheid, when the white men were away, the black men used to sleep at the doors to the farm houses with firearms to protect the white woman inside. Your staff are a part of your farm and community. You shouldnt just drop them.
 
ghoti said:
So, let him have a little bit of the land for him and his children. If he was smart he would try empower those people as much as possible. We did that and now we have super loyal staff. If a taxi comes onto our property our staff chase it away. They look after the land as well. We also allow our staff to run their cattle with ours. So they get inoculated and treated. Doing this means the staff look after our cattle super well :D We dont really have stock theft. If totsis come onto our farm, they deal with them, not us.

I dont know the particulars for this case so I dont wanna comment on if this guy is good or bad, but I do know from experience that working and enabling your staff produces wonderful results.

Our staff are so loyal, that during Apartheid, when the white men were away, the black men used to sleep at the doors to the farm houses with firearms to protect the white woman inside. Your staff are a part of your farm and community. You shouldnt just drop them.
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Agree 100%.
 
Sadly this is a reality. Even with families that do not have as many children you end up with an unhealthy high level op people living in small houses. Of all the houses on our farm only half house people actually working on the farm. The rest are occupied by widows or other left behind family members of workers that at one stage did work there. They get "free" water and electricity while many of them have people living their and working in town earning rather comfortable salaries.
 
Seriously said:
Thats why farmers should not allow cheap informal settlements on their farms. 23 children? I guess the 1 month old baby is also the 68 year old mans child.
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Farmers don't "allow" it. They built houses for their workers. This is pre-"Post-Apartheid" btw. Most farmers looked after their "volk" quite well, with government changing the rules, they had to change as well. One of the biggest things to hit farmers in the balls is the grants they received to produce food for the country. Regulation prevented a farmer from planting onions if another farmer already planted onions for example, so as to not flood the market and not produce what we need. Since the grants and regulations disappear, farmers had to go "commercial" and this lead to a slow decline. Trust me. Zim 2.0

Since 1994, farmers have started to demolish the houses as soon as a retired worker dies, to prevent their family/cousins/uncles from occupying the place without actually working the farm (essentially free room/board/water/elec)

As ghoti mentioned, would never want them to be evicted, but it's like a company owned flat that you get as part of your package. As long as you work for the company/retired from the company, it's fine, but as soon as you sublet or abuse what they gave you, eviction.
 
daveza said:
He 'worked' for them for 27 years, for which he was paid.
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And?

Part of his payment was board and food. These farm workers don't have pension fund schemes... It's the duty of the farmer to look after them on retirement. It's not just courtesy it's human... Imagine you are being told by your employer after working for them for 27 years where they provided you with food, money and housing but no pension. Thank you for your service, now fark off.
 
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