Free State farmers get help to rebuild after raging fires – here’s what you need to know

Johan du Plessis lost 30 cattle in the fire. He said there were simmering racial tensions in the community.

“They feel cross about me, who has money, because they don’t have any and the government is too corrupt and poor to help them. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know how to handle it,” he said. He said he was concerned about the tensions that may escalate as farmers are “powerless” to stop it.

However, Ratholoana Monyane, a community co-ordinator from Malebogo, said residents were angry at the municipality and not the farmers. He said the local municipality failed to provide township residents with basic services like water and to address the concerns of farmers, who feel vulnerable.

Hundreds of animals put down as fires rip through Free State farms

Job losses loom 

Farmworkers Itumeleng Setsetse and Vos Senze are worried that they might lose their jobs after the fires.

Setsetse said he had never experienced a similar incident in the seven years he has worked on a farm. He said staff accommodation was destroyed and workers would have to move to the farmstead should they keep their jobs. He described the deaths of the animals as “brutal”.

He is worried about how he will take care of his wife and their three children should his employer let him go.

Senze is from Malebogo. He said he witnessed the protests on Sunday last week when he could not travel to work. Angry protesters stopped him and threatened to burn his horse cart. He was forced to call his employer to inform him that he would miss a day of work.

A farmer who asked not to be named told TimesLIVE that he would keep his employees but would be forced to let them go if he runs out of money.

“I am still dealing with the shock — so much so that when I see people waiting at the corner for a piece job at a farm I get infuriated, because it’s probably the same people who started the fire,” he said.

Arrests 

Police spokesperson Brig Motantsi Makhele said 17 people were arrested in connection with the protests. They appeared in the Hertzogville magistrate’s court on Tuesday on charges of malicious damage to property and public violence.

He said 11 were nabbed on Sunday and the others on Monday. He said they were all granted bail of R1,000 each, but 10 remain in police custody as they could not afford to pay bail.

They will appear in court on November 5.

BY Cebelihle Bhengu