Aussies offer to help SA farmers
GOVERNMENT yesterday rebuked an Australian government minister for suggesting white South African farmers needed help from a “civilised country” and should get special visas due to the “horrific circumstances” they faced at home.
Commenting on a documentary about violent rural crime in South Africa, Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton said the farmers deserved “special attention”, according to Australian domestic media reports.
“I do think, on the information that I’ve seen, people do need help and they need help from a civilised country like ours,” Dutton said.
As another threat to farmers, he also pointed to plans by President Cyril Ramaphosa to allow expropriation of land as a solution to the massive land ownership inequalities without compensation.
The foreign ministry dismissed his comments out of hand.
“That threat does not exist,” the foreign ministry said. “There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically-elected government.
“We regret that the Australian government chose not to use the available diplomatic channels available for them to raise concerns or to seek clarification,” it added.
Rights group Afriforum, describes being a white farmer as one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, saying a white farmer is twice as likely to be murdered as a policemen, and four times as likely as a private citizen.
Reuters was not able to verify the figures independently.
Afriforum says that in many cases, farm murders also involve torture.
The government denies that whites are deliberately targeted and says farm murders are part of the wider violent crime problem.
Afriforum chief executive Kallie Kriel applauded Dutton for highlighting the issue but said his organisation was not advocating mass emigration.
“Our future is in Africa, not elsewhere,” he said. “But it’s good that there’s international recognition that we have a problem here.”
Speaking to parliament on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said South Africa was not heading down the road towards the type of violent and chaotic seizure of white-owned farms that triggered economic collapse in Zimbabwe nearly 20 years ago.
“We cannot have a situation where we allow land grabs, because that is anarchy,” Ramaphosa said. “We cannot have a situation of anarchy when we have proper constitutional means through which we can work to give land to our people.”
He has also said redistribution will not jeopardise South Africa’s food supply.
The issue of land expropriation without compensation has been a hot topic in SA and abroad after Parliament gave the go-ahead for Section 25 of the Constitution to be amended to give effect to the ANC government’s policy of expropriating land without compensation.
According to a land audit by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform last year, whites own 72% of SA’s farm and agricultural land, with coloureds coming in at 15% and blacks at 4%.
The report also states that there are only 170 black agricultural landowners in the Northern Cape, with whites owning 77% of the Province’s agricultural land.
The Northern Cape has a total of 32 million hectares of land – making it the largest landmass in the country – but has the least number of private landowners at 204 831, of which 195 052 are individuals (as opposed to companies, trusts and CBOs). There are a total of 6.47 million landowners in the country.
Farms and agricultural holdings take up 15 million hectares in the Province, of which 77% (namely 11.5 million hectares) is owned by whites. Africans own only 1% (69 350 hectares) of farm land in the Northern Cape, while coloureds own 15% (2.2 million hectares), Indians own 5% (746 820 hectares) and 3% (414 065 hectares) is owned by “other”.
There is a total of 5 247 white agricultural landowners in the Northern Cape, 170 black landowners, 1 175 coloured landowners and 404 Indian agricultural landowners.