According to TAU SA’s statistics, 2017 is worse off compared to the situation at the same time last year.
In 2016, 295 attacks and 52 murders were reported, while the corresponding period of this year showed an increase of 347 and 65 respectively.
“The situation on South African farms and agricultural holdings is taking serious crisis dimensions, and it is clear that the SAPS Rural Security Strategy does not yield the expected results,” said Mr. Henry Geldenhuys, TAU SA’s deputy president and also chairman of the union’s Security Committee.
“The question can rightly be asked whether violent crimes on farms and farms really receive priority status in practice, or provide the necessary means in rural areas to fight the problem and whether crime intelligence is being used to prevent attacks on law-abiding farmers?” asked Mr. Geldenhuys.
FF Plus’s leader in the Western Cape, Dr. Corné Mulder, in turn, expressed concern about the sudden wave of farm attacks in this province.
In the latest incident, a farmer from Klapmuts near Stellenbosch, Mr. Joubert Conradie, 47, was shot dead on his farm Uitkyk. Ten days ago, Mr. Mark Fagan, 46, from Klein Dassenberg near Philadelphia was shot.
A few weeks ago, a farmer of Ceres was attacked in the Bokkeveld area while in his farm shop and stabbed several times with a knife. He survived the attack.
Dr. Mulder said the Cape has long been breathing over the possibility of farm attacks that have been virtually unheard of in this province so far.
“At this stage, it is not yet possible to say whether the attacks are the beginning of a spate of this kind of crime in the Western Cape. However, the three attacks have to flash the signs.”
“The FF Plus wants local farmers to approach safety in their farms with a new mindset, to remain alert it and to be constantly vigilant as farm attacks can occur anywhere in the country,” said Dr. Mulder.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
