‘We and all the people she helped are going to suffer’: Bishop Virginia Mngomezulu’s son

A businesswoman and church leader who died in a land redistribution dispute in Mpumalanga has been described as a mentor and pillar of the community who lived to serve others.

“All these people are going to suffer now because of one person, now that she’s gone,” her son Mpho Mngomezulu said.

Bishop Virginia Mngomezulu was killed at Elim farm near Estancia in Breyten on November 5 when a worker from a neighbouring farm drove over her with a tractor. Police have opened a case of culpable homicide for investigation.

A distraught Mpho said his mother’s death not only affected the family but would be felt by the people she assisted.

The 61-year-old entrepreneur employed 138 people and had a centre where she assisted drug addicts and a feeding campaign, he said. She also supported a group of elderly people and about 50 children in KwaZulu-Natal who she was helping with school uniforms and food.

In addition, she mentored women in agriculture so they could uplift themselves.

He said she had studied mushroom farming in Japan. On her return, she began farming and was teaching women in rural locations to farm oyster mushrooms.

He described her as bubbly, loving and strict.

“My mother was a leader through and through. She would go all out for people. Even if she didn’t have something you needed, she would probably go and borrow it from somebody or do something else for you, so that you would be sorted.”

She was also fastidious about the right way to do things.

“You wouldn’t just get away with anything with her. She was a very meticulous person. If you jumped into her car, you had to first clean your feet, and you couldn’t touch things. She was that kind of a woman.”

Mpho said the family signed a 30-year lease agreement with the government for the farm in 2008, in line with the land redistribution policy.

They grew maize and soya beans and kept cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Later, they added chickens and rabbits, making it a mixed farming operation.

Everything was running smoothly until 2017, when some farm dwellers who had been on their payroll alleged they had a claim to the land.

“These people started saying we must leave because the farm belongs to them, based on the fact that they were born there and their fathers were working on the farm. So, by virtue of that, they have the right to the farm.

“At some point, they even blocked us from accessing the farm. They said we are strangers who are coming to invade their land.

“Every time we tried to use our tractors to farm the land, they would come out in a mob formation to stop us,” Mpho said.

We went to the police station several times, explaining this is what is happening and saying we need intervention, we need help.

—  Mpho Mngomezulu, son

Mpho said the situation worsened over time.

“They were saying to us, if ever they see us on that land they will kill us.

“We went to the police many times. There are many cases that are sitting at the police station, where we were trying to explain what is happening and saying we need intervention, we need help.”

Mpho said they made several attempts to communicate with the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development in search of a solution, but without lasting success.

In one mediation attempt, the department split off 127 hectares from the land originally given to the Mngomezulus for the farm dwellers. However, they demanded the whole farm.

They had even written to the office of the public protector to assist them.

The family obtained two protection orders. However, Mpho said his parents had to move from the farm and they found a place to stay in Witbank.

On Wednesday last week, Mpho said his father, James, had received a call from his workers informing them that someone was ploughing the land. They drove to the farm and went to the police to report the incident. Later, they received another call saying the person was ploughing again, which prompted them to return to the farm.

Mpho said while his father was on the phone trying to get help from the police, his mother tried to flag the man down to talk to him.

“This guy drove over her with the tractor. She went under the plough and he did not stop, he still continued to drive,” he said, alleging it was deliberate.

According to Mpho, the tractor driver was trespassing.

“There is a protection order against him, he was not supposed to be on that particular portion of the land.”

Mpho said the police took a statement from the man at the station and released him. Mpumalanga police have confirmed that no arrest has been made.

“My mother is gone because of people who feel they’re entitled to the land,” her emotional son shared.

“For the past eight years, we’ve been going up and down, to tell them [government entities] we have a problem here, help us resolve this. Otherwise, somebody is going to end up dying because it’s intense here. Nothing concrete happened. Instead, we lost a mother.

“There’s nothing that can ever replace a mother in your life. She was also our pastor, our friend, our leader. She was everything to us.”

Mpho said his father was struggling.

The farmhouse will always evoke this trauma, said Mpho. “The place where she died is next to the road that goes towards the house. Things can never be the same again.”

Department of land reform and rural development spokesperson Zithini Dlamini said the department was shocked by the incident.

She confirmed the department was aware of the dispute between the Mngomezulu family and the farm dwellers.

Dlamini said the department entered into an initial lease agreement with the Mngomezulu family trust represented by Madliwa James Mngomezulu, effective on November 1 2008.

“The lease was renewed for 30 years, effective March 1 2019 to February 2049. Another defined demarcated portion of the same farm was allocated to farm dwellers following a land rights inquiry,” said Dlamini.

To resolve the matter, she said the department had demarcated a portion of land for the farm dwellers according to the land rights inquiry conducted.