Continued Tension at Eshowe Following Murder of Farm Manager

January 30, 2007

The IFP National Chairperson, Ms Zanele Magwaza, today urged that all role players come together at Eshowe to address and resolve the continued tension in the area following the murder of farm manager, Mr Kenneth Lionel Eva, on 9 January 2007.

Ms Magwaza said, "the senseless murder of Mr Eva follows a long period of conflict over land rights in the area. In the last year alone houses in the Ntembeni area were demolished by the local farmer claiming that these people were illegally squatting on his land. Continued discussions, requests and pleas to the Land Affairs Department to resolve the dispute over land ownership have come to nothing. In the last year I, together with other leaders, visited the area with officials from the Land Affairs Department and received an undertaking from them that the dispute will be taken up by the Department. To date nothing has happened."

"This land dispute falls within the competence of the Land Affairs Department and the Land Claims Commission and needs to be addressed, not through the media, but with the people concerned, namely both groups claiming to own the land," Ms Magwaza said.

In conclusion Ms Magwaza stated, "allowing the tensions in the area to continue shows flagrant disregard for the people of the area - for their concerns and their communal safety. This lack of will and/or competence to address the land dispute with all the people involved has allowed the tensions in the area to continue and can only spell ill for relations between differing parties in the dispute. Those responsible in government, sitting far away in Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Pretoria, do not see and feel the daily despair of all involved and apparently cannot care less that this dispute has already led to destruction and death. I call on those concerned to make a real concerted effort to come to the people of this area and hear their pleas and to address them without fail."


For further information contact:
Ms Zanele Magwaza, IFP National Chairperson
082 804 7993