(Parliamentary debate: assessing state response and policy gaps in addressing rural safety and food security in South Africa)
Farm murders are a serious problem in South Africa and cannot be ignored. The memorial wall at Nampo, bearing the names of over 2 800 murdered farmers, is a heartbreaking testament to this.
To understand the context of farm attacks and murders, it is necessary to look back to the history.
As early as the 1990s, the then President Nelson Mandela asked the former leader of the Freedom Front (as the party was called at the time), General Constand Viljoen, to develop a strategic plan for combating farm murders.
The request was not motivated by President Mandela’s desire to demonstrate a special preference for farmers. He simply understood the importance of the agricultural community within the country’s broader economy.
The plan was drafted, but after a new president assumed office, government was unwilling to implement its recommendations.
In 2003, the then National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, released a comprehensive report clearly stating that political motives do play a role in farm murders.
Over time, agricultural communities began taking responsibility for ensuring their own safety and implemented measures to avert attacks. As a result, the number of farm murders gradually decreased from an average of over 100 per year in the 1990s.
In 2012, the police introduced a rural safety plan. It looked promising on paper, but its implementation left much to be desired.
In 2017, I succeeded in securing, for the first time, a debate of national importance in the National Assembly (NA).
In that debate, I highlighted the brutality associated with farm attacks, which undeniably shows that they are definitely not ordinary incidents of crime. There was broad consensus during the debate that farm attacks should be a top priority for the police.
In 2018, the rural safety plan was updated, but never fully implemented.
When looking at the current situation, the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, deserves credit for his use of farm watch groups to combat crime in rural areas.
Such cooperation should be fostered and fortified. Everyone should join hands to fight rural crime. Farmers and their workers have a vital role to play in this.
Every farm murder is a loss for South Africa and its economy, not just for the local community.
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