Civil rights organisation AfriForum is frustrated and concerned about the alarming rate of unsolved farm attacks and murders.
According to the organisation’s latest report, convictions have been secured in only a mere fraction of cases between 2019 and 2022.
In a statement on Tuesday, AfriForum said the report shows that only 66 cases have resulted in convictions out of 1 402 recorded incidents.
The majority of arrested suspects in these cases, shows the report, are South Africans, challenging the notion that foreigners are primarily responsible for farm murders.
The information was presented to counter a claim that foreigners are mainly behind the killings of white farmers.
The report also points out regional disparities, highlighting that certain provinces have not seen successful prosecutions during the reporting period.
“This despite the fact that the improvement of crime investigations and an increase in the number of prosecutions of all crimes committed in rural areas was set out as an explicit objective in the police’s national rural safety strategy implemented in 2019,” said Johan Nortjé, AfriForum researcher and compiler of the report.
Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum spokesperson for community safety, said weak investigative work, ineffective prosecutions, and a clear unwillingness by government to tackle rural safety and farm attacks in particular are probably the reasons for the shocking findings.
“The figures reveal a bitter truth, namely that farm attackers not only believe that they can get away with their inexcusable crimes – they know it,” said Broodryk.
In August, the DA said the brutal murder of Theo Bekker in Mpumalanga, coupled with EFF leader Julius Malema’s incitement to “Kill the Boer”, raises red flags it cannot ignore.
“We must not turn a blind eye to the signs and history’s lessons,” said the DA.
“The dangerous rhetoric and violence aimed at a particular group of our society are deeply troubling, and we must act swiftly to address this grave situation.”
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