MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – “No one can do just as they like” and “Zimbabwe is not happening here.” These were some comments following the judgment given in the case between the Oldreive Estate and the Makhado Municipality.

Judgment was given on May 23 in the local Magistrate’s Court. The two applicants in the case were Mr Henning Viljoen in his capacity as executor of the late Mr Frank Lock Oldreive’s estate and the Oldreive estate itself. The respondent was the Makhado Municipality.

The court ordered the respondent to restitute the damage incurred on the farm Outlook as a result of unlawful conduct. The court also ordered that the respondent be prohibited from entering the farm Outlook without a court order or the permission of the applicant. The municipality as respondent was further ordered to pay the costs of the applicant.

The case arose from an incident on December 30 last year when a group of people from the Songozwi-community, accompanied by members of the SAPS and municipal officials, bulldozed the gate of Mr Bill Oldreive’s farm, Outlook. Thereafter, the municipal equipment was utilized to scrape a thoroughfare through the farm to the royal ancestral graveyard on the farm Alexandra. The perpetrators claimed to have a court order but failed to produce any document.

The group insisted on having the road through the farm to the ancestral graves open. The late Mr Frank Oldreive, father of Bill, consented to open a road through his farm for the sole purpose of the funeral in 1988 of the late Khosi Patrick Mphephu, first state president of the former Venda state.

Servitude roads to the royal cemetery had already been built in 1941. Land was allocated to five Mphephu families who had the responsibility to maintain the graves. The Oldreive family later closed the road through their property as a result of misuse by 4x4-drivers and poachers.

In the court case, the magistrate reasoned that the right of way for the five Mphephu families was at all times based on arrangements on humanitarian grounds between the families and the Oldreive Estate.

In 2003, shortly after the death of Mr Frank Oldreive, the municipality bulldozed the gates for the first time. A long struggle with Council followed, resulting in an agreement that the road would only be used for special occasions with prior permission.

Earlier in December last year, Mr Bill Oldreive had dug trenches across the road for cattle crossings and pipelines. During the incident on December 30, the trenches were levelled by the municipal bulldozer.

The court resolved that the municipality should re-open the three trenches to the same state they were before December 30. The municipality is also ordered to re-install or rebuild the gate posts, and have the gates and fence repaired at the boundary of the farm Outlook, between the farm and the Bluegumspoort road, as well as between the farms Outlook and Alexandra. Entrance to the farm by the municipality is prohibited without a court order or permission from Mr Oldreive. Costs are for the account of the municipality.

Following the judgment, Mr Viljoen said: “It is in line with the Modderklip judgment; no institution or person can take the law into their own hands. There is still a rule of law in our province and country.”