On March 13, the African National Congress government ordered farmer William Pretorius to vacate his 1,200 hectare cattle and corn farm in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga province. The land officially became government property at midnight on March 20. That morning, as he had announced for at least a week in advance, Pretorius filed a court challenge to the ruling. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the land minister, Thoko Didiza, reversed the expropriation, and the land reverted to Pretorius.

In the early 1960s the Dinkwanyane community was forcibly removed from this area. The 600 or so families were among more than 3.5 million blacks driven off their land under white-minority rule between 1960 and 1982. The Dinkwanyane applied to win their land back under restitution legislation enacted after democratic, nonracial elections in 1994. Of some 65,000 restitution claims lodged, about 11,000 have been settled.

The ANC government has repeatedly stressed that it does not intend to carry out widespread or uncompensated expropriation. Instead, it is offering to buy land on the basis of market prices determined by independent valuators, minus soft loans made earlier to the farmers. Pretorius, who bought the land some years after it was stolen from the Dinkwanyane, rejected the land ministry's offer of 848,000 rands (about $108,000), holding out for his price of R2.1 million.

Chief land claims commissioner Wallace Mgoqi said the reversal of the expropriation was intended to create a better climate for talks on a purchase price for the farm. "It has nothing to do with us fearing to lose the court case," he said. "This is a confirmation of the government's commitment to promoting negotiated settlements as far as possible." But he did not explain why the government had acted as it did in the first place.

About 200 right-wing farmers rallied March 16 in Lydenburg against the government's announcement of expropriation. "This means war," declared one. The Transvaal Agricultural Union, which represents many white capitalist farmers in northeastern regions of the country, issued a statement saying, "A second Zimbabwe must be avoided at all costs. South Africa cannot afford becoming a guinea pig. We have too much to lose. After the [state's] blatant disregard for basic property rights, no landowner can sleep soundly." The larger national capitalist farmers' union, Agri SA, took a more conciliatory stance.

Reuters quoted Phineas Molatsi, a Dinkwanyane spokesperson, as saying "Pretorius is much better off than we were. The government is paying him money and giving him lots of time to go. We were forcibly removed. Our houses were bulldozed and set on fire. There was no compensation for us.... We don't have a fight with him. We just want our land back."

Racist assaults by white farmers and vigilante "commandos" remain widespread in South Africa. A white farmer was charged with murder on March 8 after a 27-year-old black man was shot and had his head smashed in with a pickax. The assault took place on March 6 when the man and a friend were collecting firewood on a farm 30 miles west of Pretoria. They were confronted by two farmers who said they were trespassing. The man killed was buried on the spot.

A day earlier, in Potchefstroom, about 100 miles west of Johannesburg, another white farmer threw tablets of phostoxin, a highly toxic fumigant, into the houses of 47 farm workers, allegedly because they refused to report for work that morning. About 70 people, including the workers' children, were evacuated. A number of them began vomiting, became drowsy, and developed muscular pains. The farmer was charged--and released on R5,000 bail ($625).  
 
Protest of cop brutality
Johannesburg cops arrested and assaulted teacher Sylvia Manda, 33, on March 9. To justify the arrest, police captain Bongani Dube said Manda failed to produce identity documents or "elaborate about her citizenship." Dube said "her complexion, facial appearance, accent, and her style of dressing" made cops suspect she was an "illegal immigrant."

Every year thousands of black workers and peasants are routinely harassed and/or arrested as cops sniff around for proof of South African citizenship. Even when they produce such proof, they are often beaten up and thrown in jail on any available pretext by the police, an institution largely unchanged since apartheid rule. Such stories are legion, particularly in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

As Manda was being arrested some of her students yelled at the police to let her go, but to no avail. After a cop beat her with a blunt object, Manda, bleeding profusely, was thrown into a cell for four hours before she was taken to a clinic. She intends to lay charges against the cops.

When contacted by the press, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, an ANC appointee, said he could not comment as he did not know about the case. He added that he did not know of any anti-immigrant prejudice among the cops.  
 
Mineworkers threaten strike
Officials of the National Union of Mineworkers say they will call for a strike at mines run by Placer Dome if a government arbitration body says it cannot arbitrate in the dispute.

The company suspended 13 union shop stewards in March and barred them from the mines. Workers are fighting the company's efforts to declare overtime compulsory instead of voluntary, and unilateral interpretation by the bosses of health and safety agreements, among other issues. Placer Dome claimed the shop stewards were "intimidating" workers and "interfering" with mine security. About 2,000 miners marched at the Westonaria mine in mid-March to demand the union representatives be reinstated and in support of their other demands.  
 
 
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