Dignity of farmworker buried on the side road to be restored on Human Rights Day. 

  The North West farmworker who was buried on the side road of a farm after he was evicted, refused a graveside by his employer is be exhumed and reburied as part of the Provincial event to celebrate Human Rights Day on Thursday.

Minister for Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti and Premier Thandi Modise will be part of the staggered ceremonies which are part of the programme for the exhumation and dignified reburial of the remains of Maruping Serole to be held as from 9:00 am outside the farm Liliespan near Lichtenburg and later in the morning at the farm Buffelsdoorn outside Potchefstroom.

“Though decisive strides have been made by the ANC led government to reverse the negative effects of 1913 Natives’ Land Act legislation which affected millions of South Africans since the 18 years the democratic government came into office, Serole’s case highlights challenges related to the socio-economic conditions of communities living and working on farms, such as employment and wages, housing, education etc. It also highlights underdevelopment, inequality and need for land reform for both settlement and production for the benefit of the landless and dispossessed,” Modise

In 1999, farm workers at the 

farm Liliespan outside Lichtenburg in the North West Province embarked on a labour strike demanding better employment and social conditions and Maruping Simon Serole was amongst them. During the protest there were confrontations and.Serole sustained back injuries and admitted at the hospital. After a week he was discharged from the hospital, spent some weeks at home and later passed on, on 20th January 1999.

His family approached the farm owner to request him to grant a permission to bury Serole on the farm and he refused arguing that they were on labour strike and he did not want anything to do with them anymore, despite the fact that there were graves on the farm. The family was left with no options but to put him to rest by the side of the road.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform had since the shameful incident in February 1999 acquired a farm measuring 21hectares and relocated twenty evicted households from Liliespan to the farm in August 2000. Subsequent to this, the department had assisted the community to form a legal entity called Baitshoki Communal Property Association to administer and manage land on their behalf.

The reburial ceremony and the unveiling of a memorial plaque hosted by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in partnership with the North West Provincial Government, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, Ditsobotla 

 commemorate the centenary of the infamous 1913 Natives Land Act and affirm the rights of farmworkers and the dispossessed