KING’S MAN SIHLE IN FARM DISPUTE

MBABANE – King’s Office Estate Manager Sihle Dlamini has been caught up in a farm boundary dispute in Dwaleni, outside Manzini.

Police had to intervene in the aftermath of clashes between Dlamini’s builders and farm dwellers yesterday morning. The dwellers accused one man, who appeared to be supporting the estate manager, of pulling out a gun when he was asked a question about who actually owned Farm No. 693 - and why Dlamini allegedly took his father’s fields. They complained that the King’s Office senior executive’s portion of Farm 693 stretched across their fields and graveyards. The situation is so serious that Dlamini told the Times SUNDAY that he received threats last week from some of the farm dwellers. He said they were armed with manmade weapons (tintjempeza). He said he had never seen anyone from his camp brandishing a gun as alleged by the farm dwellers. Dlamini pointed out that he bought a portion of land, with its diagram showing that certain parts of other homesteads fell within his farm boundary.

“I am not here for a fight,” he said. He said his land measured four hectares. The King’s interpreter said he did not understand why people were fighting against him because he had documents proving that he owned the farm together with the disputed boundaries. Police from Matsapha (Sigodvweni) did not allow a van to offload timber at Dlamini’s homestead until he produced documented evidence that he owned the land. This, the police did, to prevent a looming violent clash.

Dwellers want govt to investigate

On the other hand, the dwellers said their forefathers were buried on Farm 693. They called upon government to investigate how the land was converted to a farm. Mantombane Mtsetfwa (71) said the land belonged to the King and Ingwenyama of the Kingdom of Eswatini. She disputed the fact that they lived on a farm, saying it was a land concession.  An economic land concession is a long-term lease that allows a concessionaire to clear land in order to develop industrial-scale agriculture and be granted for various activities including large-scale plantations, raising animals and building factories to process agricultural products.  She said the British Protectorate had leased out the land to Jacobus Wynand Rautenbach. According to documents retrieved from the Deeds Office, it was ceded to Rautenbach of South Africa as Crown Land No.22. It was registered as Land Concession No. 134. Mtsetfwa said Rautenbach paid for King Sobhuza II’s education at Lovedale Missionary Institute in the Victoria East division of the Cape Province in South Africa.

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