“the salt-and-pepper hair is more noticeable, the nervous swallowing more pronounced. Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer looks increasingly twitchy in the media spotlight as pressure mounts after poor start to his tenure. It’s not as bad as his poor start at the Bulls in 2002 , but with the weight of the entire nation on his shoulders, the worry lines are deepening.” – craig ray

oh the irony.

my condolences too.

@ryecatcher-64:
yes, and the same to you, rye.

these are some reports from the web and were articles by journalists/reporters at the time. i dont think anyone has interviewed mujati for his side of the story because how exaclty do you ask a zanu heavy in zim about his land grabbing behaviour without getting into trouble, i suppose.

@numba4lock-65:
really a little unrelated to springboks and rugby though dont you think.
tragic as it may be for the people suffering from it.

@David-66:

got to feel sorry for mujati, everytime people talk about him the zim land grab comes up. Which by the way was horrific and wrong on so many levels and is a important part of why the zim economy (once the bread basket of southern africa) is a shell of what it once was.

I’d like to hear the same reaction for the on going land grab in palestine, were the isreali occupational force is stealing more and more date and olive farm land every day. Im yet to read an out cry about that one this site ?

RIP.

And another one does, another one does

Another one bites the dust.

Poor, thieving foreign invader is old ‘skinderbekkie’, David.

Is the answer to be found in the fact that far too many on this site are off-spring or originals of the thieving, foreign-invader stock?

Another one bites the dust

I listened and encouraged him to do it because I thought it was a story that needed to be told in the interests of a bigger cause and only when convinced that this might help others did he agree. Today he was phoned and threatened twice by Joseph Mujati and has taken his wife and daughters into hiding. The Odzi Sports Club not far from Tiny Farm which once provided the hub of the community’s social activitiesis now a torture-centre run by a ZANU PF militia.

Traditionally Springbok rugby players are hard men who give no quarter
on the field of sporting battle but off they are gentlemen and this is what
has given the game and the people who play it a special place in sport.
Before he runs on the field tomorrow maybe Brian can start acting like a
Springbok and ask his father to leave Tienie, Charlotte and the girls in
peace.

Post 11 – …………. “will email you.”

and the reply in 13 is ” Thanks”

Is that your mode of operation with, and thus connection to, the ‘verligte’(actually misnomer as they are all ‘verkrampt’)Cape component of the Afrikaner Bond(sure you know that is their new name these days?)

My! The truth does always come out in strange ways.

But everything changed just after 1 o’clock on Monday 8th December of 2003 when ‘occupiers’ burst through the farm gates and told Tienie’s daughter Shelly that they were taking Tiny Farm and wanted to see her father .

Hearing of the crisis nearby, a neighbour phoned Tienie who was in Harare at the time. He hastened back that afternoon to meet a large man accompanied by 12 youths in a belligerent mood. The man introduced himself as Joseph Mujati, handed Martin a letter and informed him that he was taking over the farm immediately.

Martin looked at the letter and noted that that it was for the acquisition of the adjacent property known as ‘Tiny Extension’ not Tiny Farm. He pointed out this fact to Mujati who said it was irrelevant and that the letter could be changed in two minutes to read Tiny Farm. He was adamant he wanted Tiny Farm and the Martin family home for 80 years.

He told Martin to start packing immediately and to get off the property.

“I insisted he was acting illegally,” remembers Martin. “I phoned the police in Nyazura who arrived to tell me I would not be subjected to any violence but that I had to pack and leave in the morning.

“At the crack of dawn my wife Charlotte, my daughter Shelly and myself started packing. Our situation was made worse by the verbal abuse we were subjected to while trying to pack in the presence of two policemen. This carried on all the time but they could not wait for us to leave and the looting of the house started while we were still there. Not even my golf clubs were spared. 100m away my eldest daughter Shayne was also being harassed and verbally abused while trying to pack up her home. One policeman mentioned that he could not believe his eyes. He was standing witness to a crime and forbidden to do anything.

“We left that afternoon at 4:30pm with three vehicles and our furniture thanks to friends and neighbours who sent transport to assist us without us having to ask. We will be forever grateful. They were fantastic. I reminded myself that we were lucky we had not been beaten or murdered like so many others. My crops, livestock, tractors and workshop equipment were all left behind. In a few hours we had lost everything. Three generations had worked hard to build what was taken in a day.

“On the night of 12 December 2003, one of my workers who had been with me for 12 years was called by Mujati and accused of being a ‘sell out’. He was beaten, tied up in a net and dumped into the swimming pool. He was lucky to survive. Another one of my workers who was looking after my cattle was subjected to threats and had to flee. He later returned to carry on with his work.

“The next day, a Saturday I went to the farm with the police but was not allowed into the yard and not allowed to speak to any of my workers. I was very worried about them and anxious to find out if they were alright but forbidden to do so. Mujati told me that he was now also the owner of my crops, and said he would pay for all of them as well as my equipment (to this day 4 years on I have not received a cent and have lost millions of rands). I had paprika, maize and tobacco almost ready to be reaped. He told me my workers were to stop working and that I should pay them their gratuities as he would then take them over, and that our domestic staff were to leave the farm.

“I was told by Mujati in the presence of a police Superintendent that none of my tractors and equipment would be used by him or moved off the farm. Soon after I left the tractors were sent out to work.

“After having meetings with the Governor of Manicaland I was told I could finish my crops, but was never allowed to do so. Then I had a call from Mujati telling me to get my cattle off the farm but I refused as I had no where to put them. He then ordered the cattle to be left in the pens with no water or food. A few days later I managed to get Mrs Harrison of the SPCA to visit the farm to try to save the cattle and she reported back that they were being looked after by my workers in spite of Mujati’s instructions.

“On Tuesday (13th Jan) I obtained another High Court Order instructing me to return to my house and farm and remain there until all my crops had been reaped. After the case I agreed to meet Mujati at the farm on the Friday, but he did not appear.

“The next day a truckload of thugs arrived at the house I was temporarily staying at, warning me against meeting Mujati. They warned me not to go to the farm as I would be ‘dealt with’ and the house I was staying in would be burnt to the ground. The home did not belong to me. It belonged to very good friends of mine who were kind enough to let us stay there in the interim. The mob also told me that the police had nothing to do with this matter.”

‘Tienie’ and Charlotte have not been back to their farm or home and live with little more than memories in a small rented town-house in Harare.

also, the land grabbers are still firmly entrenched in power in zim so they certainly are’nt going to start nailing themselves are they.

and with loads of support from other africans in the region i dont see that scenario changing soon.

they’re a funny lot in how they laud their land reform and companies indigenisation programmes and ‘how its done wonders’ for them yet are standing cap in hand hoping for ANOTHER cash handout from the sa and angola governments as we speak.

for the record, they’re asking for 100 million dollars US from us (thats 878 million rands).

***** knows if i were to calculate the amount of money the zimbabwean government owes south africa to date OR the amount of money the government of sa has written off over the last 10 to 15 years.

and this is the ‘economic liberation’ example joojoo and co hope to follow…

So far, nobody has done so.

The law prohibits any sporting code from selecting a person to represent South Africa at international level if the person is not a legitimate citizen of the country.

Can’t understand what Meyer is busy doing here.