Over a 100 farm workers have lost their income following consistent acts of alleged vandalism and sabotage at their farm. This has affected shareholders and interns at Mamphodo-Mushasha Begwa Communal Property Association farm in Port Edward. The farm is situated at Louis Trichadt and Elim in Limpopo. It was attained through a land restitution process in 2006 and was once an economic mainstay for over four hundred households.
The three thousand-hectare farm provided an economic life-line for local communities. The farm specialised in vegetable and cattle farming and sold to major market across South Africa. With alleged vandalism and theft by a local gang, the farm was forced to close after losing millions of rand worth of produce. The Communal Property Association believes some members of the community are behind the acts.
“After we have started with the first harvest, those people came with bakkies and harvested all the production and again after the second harvest they came again and did the same as you can see the chillies here is still in the weeds, this one the products we were supposed to send to the market,” says Eric Mukwevho, Chairperson: Mamphodo-Mushasha Begwa CPA.
Mukwevho says none of the suspects has been arrested despite numerous cases being reported.
“We are continuing to report cases to the police but we are not getting any assistance, we have plus minus 9 cases which were reported and none of them were attended to because most of the cases were withdrawn,” Mukwevho added.
Police have confirmed that several cases of malicious damage to property and theft have been opened. Some of the cases are under investigation.
