Black residents and business owners in Hartbeestpoort have warned of possible retaliation against alleged white residents who are trying to force them out of the area through violent attacks including the burning of their businesses.
On Friday, residents and business people marched to several places including the local Crocodile mine and police station demanding an end to racism as well as for Africans to be included in the town’s lucrative economy spurred by tourism with the Hartbeestpoort Dam as the main attraction.
The latest incident was the burning down of the resort Bubbles owned by businessman Thabiso Mathibedi who since establishing it in 2018 has been subjected to harassment and told to leave the area by white residents.
Mathibedi was part of Friday’s demonstrations and warned his alleged attackers that they would be similarly violent retaliation if they struck again.
“The same people who are making money out of our land are the ones challenging us our courts , using our own money to fight us. So we are saying, Enough with being victims. We are no longer victims. Enough with us crying. We no longer cry. Enough of us coming after something bad happened to all of us. Now, we are going for prosperity, and there will never be anything about us without us, the burning of all the black businesses, logistics,milking our land without us, it stops now,” he said.
Mathibedi said the black community demands its stake in the town’s economy and will no longer sit back while their white counterparts benefit.
“We are the owners of the land, not visitors, and we will not ask anymore. A time is coming where we just going to take. a time is coming where we don’t have to ask for anything. Racists say they want to shut out, shut down black businesses, I told them when they burned down my shop that they have started something they won’t be able to finish, we are tired, it’s time we take over, we are going to be friendly using all the legal tools but we are taking over,” said Mathibedi who also slammed the Crocodile Mine for neglecting residents of a squatter camp it mines just metres from.
Another businessman, Hartley Ngoato who has endured similar attacks over many years including being physically assaulted by a group of white men, said alleged white racists were had become law unto themselves and are controlling the police and other local authorities.
“As the authorities out there those that are relaxed and ignorant thinking that everything is okay after the government took over, that racism is still operating, and that, in actual fact, a lot of whites still operate their own government within South Africa, Hartbeest is one of those that serves as a second Orania, and that cannot be tolerated in this day and age,” said Ngoato.
Ngoato also implicated local police in the alleged racism. He said Warrant Officer Smiley Jacobs who was responsible for liquor licensing used his position to frustrate black business and that the South African Police Service had failed to act against him when he was reported.
“When I applied for a liquor trading license, Warrant Officer Smiley Jacobs posted my application in the white people’s WhatsApp group. He was taken to a disciplinary hearing where I testified and was given just a warning, I mean a mere warning for such a serious transgression,” said Ngoato who believes the aspirations of blacks were compromised by the government in a bid to achieve reconciliation.
“Government is much more about reconciliation, cohesion and those type of things. And for many years, the government has been preaching this thing, this will not listen to government anymore. They are they’ve made themselves a government by themselves, as I’m saying is a friendly. Next time we take the potential,” he said.
Another business owner Eunice Magagula said operating her guest house has been a nightmare. Eunice bought the guest house business from a white woman who had been operating it for 9 years but was told by white residents she could not carry on with the operation as it was illegal.
She said the Madibeng Local Municipality was used to outlaw her establishment while white owned ones were operating in the same area.
“I bought this property from is a white person, and they were running this place as a guest house. Yes, definitely. I’m going to open the guest house. They say you must stop. You’re not supposed to open the guest house. That’s illegal. I said. This person operated for nine years. Me, I’m only a man. Here you are telling me I should stop. That is not fair. They said, Yes, you should stop. I even got a letter that I should close my business with. The Madibeng Municipality does not have any sound explanation for refusing to let me operate my business,” said Magagula on the sidelines of the protest.
She said there has been attempts to burn down her establishment.
The Crocodile Mine and the local police station memorandums from the protesters will little to no response. North West police spokesperson Sabatha Mokgoabone said he was not aware of any officers implicated in aiding racism and promised to investigate.
Most of Hartbeest’s white residents including the business community secured lucrative land including near the highly commercial dam, through pre-1994 arrangements which resulted in them being granted Permission to Occupy and 99 year leases for little to no payment while black occupants are charged market related rent by the government which owns the land.
Mandla Mathebula, spokesperson at the water and sanitation department said the PTOs and 99 year leases will soon be cancelled and that Hartbeest’s white residents will be made to pay market related rent to the state.
“These are being canceled, and we are implementing a new system that will ensure that the land around is managed uniformly, with all the rules applying to all the people who are given leases by the department. Therefore, every one who occupies land or who wants to occupy land around Hartbeestpoort Dam will be subjected to a lease agreement, and once they have all signed the lease agreements, they are going to pay market rate rental to the land that they occupy around the dam. There will be no one who is not paying while others are paying, and there will be no one who is paying less while others are paying more in terms of the way rental has been calculated,” said Mathebula.
The government acknowledges the injustice but has no explanation for why it has been allowed to go on for so long under democratic rule.
“Therefore, before we took control, there had been many leases that had been entered into, including permission to occupy a 99 year leases. But you people should appreciate the fact that under those circumstances, only white communities or people from the white communities were benefiting, and black people could not penetrate that economy,” said Mathebula.
He insisted that the government was correcting the situation albeit at small pace.
“Therefore it is incorrect that we are doing nothing as a department. There is a process. It might be slow, Yes, I admit. But it is progressing, and it will be concluded as soon as possible. And once it is concluded, we want everyone to cooperate and adhere to the prescripts of their this agreement,” he said.