Woman can keep farm for now - court (IOL)

Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana and Veronica Moos - whose farm was recently seized due to the department's "use it or lose it" land distribution policy - on Tuesday reached an interim agreement in terms of which Moos will be allowed access to the farm during the day. Moos had headed to the high court here to ask for an urgent order against the minister in terms of which her possession of the farm was restored.  She also wanted an interdict against the minister, restraining her from harassing or interfering with her occupation of the farm Yzerfontein, near Bapsfontein.

Counsel for the minister only gave notice of opposing the application when the matter was called.  The application was postponed to May 5 to give the minister the opportunity to file opposing papers.

Louise du Plessis, the lawyer acting for Moos, said in terms of an interim agreement, Moos would be allowed to return to the farm during the day and nobody would be allowed to stay on the farm, except the two security guards posted there by the department. Moos was in 2007 allocated a farm in terms of the land distribution policy.  She detailed before court the difficulties she encountered in making the farm productive as she did not get any support from government. She claimed she was given an "inadequate" R200 000 in subsidies and struggled on her own to get the farm on its feet.

Her attempts to get assistance proved fruitless and she also could not obtain loans from banks. She subsequently depleted her pension funds trying to sustain the farm. Moos eventually lost all confidence in the department's ability to assist her. She also experienced several burglaries on the farm and did not feel safe to sleep on the farm as her alarm system did not work.  She slept at her home in Pretoria North and drove to the farm several times a week.

Out of desperation she found a white couple - the Marnewecks - to stay on the farm free of charge, looking after the farm in her absence. The couple helped her pay the electricity bill.  She reserved a part of the house for herself to stay when she needed to sleep over. However, on March 19 the minister arrived on the farm unannounced.  "She went to the back door of the house and marched right into the house uninvited.  "She asked Mr Marneweck if he knew who she was ...She told him she was the Minister of Agriculture and that the house he was staying in belonged to her." The Marnewecks were told to get out of the house immediately.

Moos said while the minister was still in the house, her farm labourer phoned her to tell her that "there is a Lulu on my stoep. Moos said the labourer could not explain who Lulu was and she asked to speak to her.  The minister, she said, refused to speak to her, but an official told her they were visiting the farm. Moos said Xingwana, accompanied by reporters, returned to the farm on April 8 and informed the media that the farm was being taken back by the government as no productive farming had taken place on it.

She said this was part of government's "use it or lose it" campaign. Moos said the decision was unlawful as she, contrary to what the law prescribed, was not afforded the opportunity to make any representations. She was instead forcefully evicted, she said.

• This article was originally published on page 4 of The Pretoria News on April 22, 2009

By Zelda Venter