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The Springs community has been left reeling after an alleged racist attack on a 17-year-old boy at the hands of a farmer.
The boy, who admitted to being on the farmer’s smallholding in Strubenvale, said he was hiding from a group of dogs that had chased him while he was riding his bike.
However, the farmer said he thought the boy was trying to steal from him.
The incident, which has resulted in tit-for-tat charges being threatened by the boy’s father and the local community policing forum, has shattered the relative peace in the area on the outskirts of the mining town.
Matimba Baloyi was visiting his dad, Russell, in Springs over the school holidays when he was attacked by dogs while on a bike ride.
He fled and found himself on what he thought was an empty plot just down the road from his father’s house, in the Strubenvale suburb.
“A man came behind me and he punched me. When I tried to stand up, two more men came with dogs and they kicked me. They accused me of trying to steal and I explained to them that dogs were chasing me and that I was just trying to get away from them,” he said.
Baloyi maintains that the attack on his son was racially motivated, and that fears of land grabs had prompted this community to rally behind the farmer.
The farmer, reluctant to talk, denied the allegations, refused to give his name, and told City Press to leave his property.
According to the title deeds, the agricultural small holding is registered under the name Petrus Albertus van der Walt.
The farmer said that his son found Matimba at the back of their property in what seemed to be an attempt to steal from them, but denied that they had assaulted Matimba.
“The boy was not beaten. That is a big lie. I found the boy at the back of my house. He said he was scared of my neighbour’s dogs, but the dogs weren’t chasing him,” he said.
The farmer claimed that the Baloyis had kidnapped and assaulted his employee, also 17, after they came to his house looking for him.
“They kidnapped him and they hit him but I didn’t lay a charge,” he said.
The farmer then began taking photos of the City Press journalists and the company car.
“You must understand, we are living on the farm and every day farmers are attacked, and there are murders. We can’t accept that everybody who enters our premises is a good guy.”
Kidnapping allegations
Matimba said that the incident, which happened on July 7, left him feeling unsafe.
“I feel like this is not the first time that this has happened. They have probably done something like this before to other people,” he said.
When he heard what had happened, the boy’s father decided to confront the people involved.
“Seeing as they were people I didn’t know I took one of my friends with me to their house. We found a young man who said that he was just a worker there and that he was not involved in the assault,” Baloyi said.
Baloyi said the young man offered to take them to the alleged perpetrators – his employer and his employer’s son.
They drove into town, but couldn’t find them, so they took the young man back to the plot in Strubenvale.
“We found four men there and my son confirmed that the ones who had attacked him were not among them. The four men then accused us of kidnapping the employee we found at the house,” he added.
Baloyi said that the situation had become unsettling and they had decided to leave, but their exit was blocked by cars, some of which bore the logo of the local community policing forum.
“As we were driving away about 40 or 50 cars were blocking the road. Guys came out with big and small guns, telling us to get out of the car. I have never been that scared in my life. I could not protect myself or my son. We had so many guns pointed at us,” he said.
“After some time of talking back and forth, they realised that what they were doing was not necessary. They told me that now that they knew my son, he was now free to play around in the area,” Baloyi added.
Head of the Strubenvale CPF, Lucas Joubert, confirmed that he was there but as a friend, not as a member of the CPF.
“We were not closing him off. We were parked there after we had all received calls and messages from the farmer, who was in distress after his employee who is also under his guardianship had been kidnapped. It’s a narrow road but they could have left anytime they wanted,” Joubert said.
“Mr Baloyi should have just gone to the police. We have the right to protect our families and our properties. The farmer had the right to protect himself. He did not do anything wrong,” said Joubert.
“We were there because Mr Baloyi had assaulted and kidnapped a young boy who was also 17 years old. We were kind to Mr Baloyi but he was aggressive. He made racist remarks and he threatened us and he told us that he knew politicians. Mr Baloyi’s friend had a gun and the people with guns took theirs out because he had his,” Joubert added.
Baloyi maintained that neither he nor his friend had a gun and that he had not kidnapped the boy.
“None of us had a gun. If we had guns, those men would have shot us,” he said.
Police reaction
Baloyi went to the police station to open a case, and two officers accompanied him back to the house.
“The father and son gave the police officers their version of events and they showed the officers videos on their phones – videos and pictures that they had taken of my son when they hit him and of us when they were confronting us. It makes me angry that those videos and pictures are being circulated to everyone in the community now,” he added.
The 42-year-old father said he was threatened with a counter charge of kidnapping if he opened a case against them.
Baloyi had no doubt that his son’s assault was racially motivated.
“There’s no question about it. We never even brought up the issue of race; they brought it up. They said that there is the issue of land in the country and that black people want to take land from white people. They said as white people, when they see a black man on their land, they get worried and they have to defend themselves,” he said.
Joubert said he told Baloyi that the incident was not about race or racism.
“The whole thing should not have been about race but it had turned into it,” he said.
Joubert said that they would wait for Baloyi to make a move.
“There is no set period when one can open a case. We could also open a case against him and take all possible avenues,” he said.
Baloyi has approached the South African Human Rights Commission for advice, but hasn’t laid a complaint.
“Their take was that from what we had explained to them, there were possible human rights and human dignity violations but I would also like for the police to do their work,” he said.
The commission’s Angie Makwetla said that there was nothing they could do until Baloyi laid a complaint with them.
“Our job is to investigate if his son’s rights were violated and if so which ones were violated ... from what he has told me, it seems as if there was a violation of his rights,” she said.
Springs police spokesperson, Captain Johannes Ramphora, said that the CPF worked hand in hand with the police.
“The CPF is like our eyes and ears. We work together to combat crime in the Strubenvale community. We meet on a monthly basis to discuss the issues of crime and how to best deal with them,” he said.
Baloyi has lived in the area for about four years. He said the incident has raised uncomfortable issues for him – his son was meant to be comfortable at his home and should have freedom of movement but could not because he was black.
“I thought that my son’s generation would be much better at managing these things, but after what he witnessed that day, I had to tell him that there were many people who died fighting the very same attitude we saw on that day,” said Baloyi.
“These are things that as a country, we need to be dealing with, at another level. Yes we know that there is the issue of wanting land back. If this thing is not properly managed, it is going to cause a big problem in our country.”
