Evicted from farms, workers live in squalor

The Scotland section of Coligny’s Tlhabologang township sprang up just over a year ago, after Parliament passed legislation giving rights to farmworkers who have lived on farms for more than 20 years. The new laws are said to have triggered mass evictions by Coligny farmers. The settlement has two water tanks and five mobile toilets, serving a population that has grown to more than 5 000, local residents estimated.

“There’s almost nothing here [in Scotland section] for us, man. Only dust and shacks and two taps. Things are bad and these farmers kicked us off the land and made things worse,” resident Eric Matlhatlhedi said.

With the sunflower field less than 100m from the shacks and with no fencing in place, walking over to the field to get food has become common practice among the residents.

But the field has also recently become a safe haven for criminals.

Just a day before Matlhomola Moshoeu died, a 10-year-old girl was raped in the field, the Mail & Guardian has learnt.

The girl was returning from school and took a shortcut through the field to get to the Scotland section, her relatives told the M&G in the two-room shack in the informal settlement where more than five of them live.

The rapist has not yet been arrested, despite a case being opened and the young girl catching a glimpse of her attacker.

Now, with Matlhomola’s death and heightened tensions in the community, the girl’s family fear letting their children out of the shack to play along the road next to the sunflower field.

“These sonneblomme [sunflowers] are a problem because the criminals are using the field now. It’s so near to the shacks and it’s really not safe for our kids. They can’t even play nearby.

“I eat the sonneblom as well, but it’s really a problem for us now,” Refilwe Moroke, a resident of the Scotland section, told the M&G this week.