No outcry over farm attacks and murders
|Published
In June, Pierre de Dock and his wife Belinda were murdered on their farm in Aurora, Piketberg. Facebook image
Cape Town - Civil Rights organisation, AfriForum said there was no outcry from authorities or reaction after 127 farm attacks of which 26 were murders in the country this year with no spotlight or outcry from authorities.
A Farm Attacks and Murders Report, First Quarter 2023 showed that there were 77 attacks with nine murders in 90 days.
The number of murders has now risen following the June killing of Pierre de Dock and his wife Belinda in Aurora in Piketberg.
In June, police Captain Frederick Van Wyk confirmed that both victims in Piketberg were in their fifties and that their bodies had been discovered by a female worker on the farm.
Belinda’s body was found in the bedroom and Pierre’s was discovered in the garage with stab wounds in the neck.
Provincial organised crime detectives were assigned to the case.
The murders followed the deaths of Anneke Claassen, 73 and Hennie Claassen, 77 who were set alight and left for dead on their farm in Limpopo on June 3.
A 30-year-old man was taken into custody.
AfriForum used data which was analysed and compiled by Johan Nortjé, a researcher at AfriForum Research and Schalk de Beer, the Community Safety Data analyst at AfriForum.
Their sentiments have been shared widely across social media by various activists including Action Society.
Ian Cameron of Action Society said politics had a large role to play on pro action: “I used to be on the National Rural Social Committee of the police and I think the rural safety strategy can help if it is implemented properly.
“At the moment it is a paper exercise so it means nothing.
“Police in general do not have resources and the rural safety structures have less.
“There is no form of prioritisation and people might ask why must we prioritise; if you do not have farmers, you do not have food.
“The more under threat the rural community is, the more under threat farmers are, and therefore you do not have food.
“The onslaught is very serious and people need to understand that if you take emotion out of it and by killing a farmer or workers on a farm is where you will feel it more than in other areas, there will immediately be people who will not have food to eat or jobs to put food on the table and children who cannot go to school.
“I think it is important that the police take it seriously, but unfortunately it doesn’t suit the political narrative.”
Cameron also voiced his concerns on social media, sharing photographs of the dead farmers and calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take action.
“Say their names Mr President!They are NOT just numbers,” Cameron stated on his Facebook account.
Weekend Argus approached Vincent Magwenya, the spokesperson for the president for comment and but he did not respond.
AfriFoum said the figures were shocking with the first quarter of 2023 seeing 77 attacks, nine of which were murders between January and March. When compared with the first quarter of 2022, they said the incidents had in fact decreased as there were 80 attacks including 11 murders.
This week they confirmed the update for 2023, were 26 farm murders countrywide, and a total of 127 farm attacks.
Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s spokesperson for Community Safety said the concern was there were few suspects being apprehended.
“AfriForum appeals to people who live and work in rural areas to empower themselves.
“In the past few years, AfriForum’s local safety structures launched a comprehensive campaign to empower communities through training.”
They said men accounted for 67% of murder victims, while women made up 33% and most of them were aged over 60.
They said victims were either shot, stabbed or strangled and in 11 incidents nothing was stolen while in others electronics, firearms and vehicles were taken.
According to Statistics SA, more than 2000 people have been killed on farms since 1990.
National police spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe did not respond.
The latest Western Cape murders include that of Ingrid Koch, 65, in 2022 in Moorreesburg who had been stabbed, Hendrik Pistorius, 52, of Piketberg in August 2022 and Christine Walters, 74 of Ceres-Karoo on March 3, 2022.
One of the most horrific murders in 2022 was that of the wife of a farmer, Sesi Binta Smit, 55 and her son Rhudie Smit, 17 and five female farmer workers in the Free State.