Farm murders: the real numbers

STATISTICS: POLICE MINISTER RELEASES FIRST FIGURES FOR A DECADE FF Plus says Zuma administration swept this under the rug.

The government has released its first statistics on farm attacks in more than a decade. Since Police Minister Bheki Cele released statistics on farm attacks and murders dating back to 2012 this week, two minority rights groups have said the stats are evidence that not enough is being done to reduce these particular crimes.

Over recent years, some have gone as far as to characterise farm attacks as a form of genocide. Particularly in Australia, there have been marches calling for something to be done in South Africa, and the Australian government briefly considered the idea of offering South African farmers fasttrack visas to their country.

This was soon withdrawn after a diplomatic outcry from the South African government.

This week, in a written response to a parliamentary question from the Freedom Front Plus’ Pieter Groenewald, Cele and Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole offered the first breakdown of farm attack statistics since they were last released in 2007.

These new statistics date back to the 2012/13 financial year and show that attacks have increased, though apparently the number of reported murders have overall been on the decline.

The police were able to determine their own criteria for what a farm attack is, but how this was arrived at was not clear from Cele’s statistics.

Since 2012, he said, there were

3 059 A acks on farmers reported since 2012.

a total of 3 059 attacks reported, averaging 510 attacks a year, in which about 56 farmers on average were killed per year.

North West had the highest number of attacks at 722, followed by Gauteng with 644. However, in Gauteng, 69 murders occurred over the six-year period, the highest of any province.

According to all available definitions of genocide, however, farm murders do not fulfil the criteria to be categorised as such.

Groenewald nevertheless said in a statement on Saturday: “If these figures are compared to other available sources, then they seem to be fairly reliable. It is regrettable that these statistics were swept under the rug under the administration of former president Jacob Zuma.”

He said the FF Plus would continue with its “action plan to inform the international community of the exploits and particularly the cruelty of murders in South Africa by actively liaising with, among others, the European Parliament and governments as well as the United Nations (UN) through the FF Plus’ Unpo membership”.

Another minority rights party, Front National, quoted an Afrikaans newspaper article on Saturday in which Cele admits that farmers are being murdered at a far greater rate, relative to their size, than any other SA group.

Front National said on their Facebook page: “Finally! After years of silence and denial, Minister of Police Bheki Cele finally admits that farm murders are disproportionately high.

“Next question is – what are you going to do about it, Bheki?”