MPs weigh in on racialisation of murder rate

Racial overtones in the controversy over violent crime became the focal point of Tuesday’s debate in the National Assembly on crime statistics.

The debate came after the #BlackMonday demonstrations in which farmers took to the streets and called on the government to protect farming communities from killings and an imminent “white genocide”.

Some demonstrators who took part in the protest brandished the old South African flag and gathered at the Voortrekker Monument to lay white crosses. The demonstration sparked debate on “racialisation” of murder.

According to national crime statistics released last week, 19,016 murders were reported in the 2016-17 financial year, an increase of 343 on the previous year’s toll.

The crime figures also showed increases in the number of cases of attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Sexual offences and assault with grievous bodily harm reportedly decreased.

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, who took part in the National Assembly debate, said the demonstrations were racist and “the apartheid flag belongs in the dustbin of history and not anywhere in the streets”.

“A racist gathering was used to sow divisions ... on a serious matter and promote hatred in a democratic SA…. Together with the opposition … we are open to discuss their fears and our plan of action,” he said.

Killings on farms should be confronted, said Mbalula.

But he said most violent crime took place in poor black communities including in Nyanga, Inanda, Umlazi, KwaMashu, Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, Delft, Mitchells Plain and Lusikisiki.

DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard spoke about the Monakane family, murdered on their farm near Dewetsdorp in the Free State.

“This attack on two upcoming black farmers slipped by, barely making a blip ... and from the media’s side, there seemed to be little interest. A black farmer from the Eastern Cape and his housekeeper were also murdered. No one here knows about it,” said Kohler Barnard.

Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said farm murders could not be ignored.

The political leadership of the police was failing the country by not releasing a specific report on farm murders, he said.

Congress of the People MP Mosiuoa Lekota said that concern about murders of farmers and their workers was valid, and that the ANC wanted to go on sowing racial division in its handling of the issue.