Farm murder comments irk

There are no farm murders or land grabs in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday.

“There are no killings of farmers or white farmers in South Africa,” he said.

“There’s no land grab in South Africa – we are involved in a process of discussing land reform.”

Ramaphosa was talking about meeting US President Donald Trump‚ but said they never discussed Trump’s tweet.

Trump tweeted on August 23: “I have asked secretary of state Mike Pompeo to closely study the SA land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers.”

Ramaphosa said: “But on the tweet itself‚ it was clearly misinformed.”

Ramaphosa’s remark ruffled AfriForum’s feathers.

The lobby group said on Thursday it would send the loved ones of farm murder victims across the Atlantic as part of its awareness campaign.

According to the latest SA crime statistics‚ there were 62 recorded farm murders‚ 33 house robberies‚ six attempted murders and two rapes on farms in 2017/2018.

This pales in comparison with the 57 South Africans murdered daily.

AfriForum deputy chief executive Ernst Roets said Ramaphosa’s remark was “a slap in the face of the more than 10‚000 people who were attacked on SA farms‚ as well as the families of the about 2‚000 victims who were killed in these farm attacks”.

The Institute of Race Relations also criticised the remark.

Its chief executive, Frans Cronjé, said the president’s comment was “offensive to the victims of farm murders – black and white – and to the millions of South Africans who live with insecure title to the properties they occupy”.

The presidency later tried to soften Ramaphosa’s comments.

Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko said he was responding to Trump’s tweet.

Diko said: “This is what the President [Ramaphosa] was dismissing and we reject the notion that he lied. Crime happens in all our communities including townships‚ rural areas‚ farms and suburbs.

“[His] remarks were in direct response to ‘large-scale killing of farmers’‚ a characterisation everyone knows holds no truth,” she said. –