FARM SECURITY
Farm security in SA: An update on the deadly scourge that’s killing and maiming the country’s farmers
Tied up, stabbed, strangled, shot, bludgeoned, tortured… their names appear on the Geni website, along with the details of their murders. Sibonelo, Johanna, Goberdhan, Renee, Themba, Adam, Jeremias… all with family and friends and among the 59 people murdered on South Africa’s farms and smallholdings since April 2020. According to civil rights organisation AfriForum, 64% of the victims in the almost 400 attacks recorded during this period were over the age of 50 and, in at least six incidents, nothing was even stolen1.
A
lthough there was a decline in the number of farm attacks in the 2020/2021 financial year compared to the previous financial year, says Ernst Roets, Head of Policy and Action in civil rights organisation AfriForum, there was an ominous increase in farm murders. During the past year, 59 people were murdered on farms in South Africa, compared to 41 in the previous year.
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SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA JULY 2021
Who or what’s behind this particularly heinous crime? Benedict Weaver of the Zero Foundation Africa says: “Recent research suggests that foreign nationals are among those behind farm attacks, which have increased in Limpopo Province and near the border areas of both eSwatini and Lesotho. The results are as intended: increased anxiety within the community, demand for safety and self-defence training, emigration to
the urban areas and a disincentive for new and younger farmers.” As happened in Kenya, Rhodesia and then Zimbabwe, he continues, attacks on farmers and their herds or crops were largely motivated by a desire to redistribute land. The same scenario has unfolded in South Africa, with increasing demand for land redistribution and exacerbated by an unclear governmental policy regarding land reclamation.
securityfocusafrica.com
