The FF welcomes the decision by the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and the Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, to once again release statistics on farm attacks and murders after eleven years of silence on the matter.
The last time that these statistics were disclosed was in 2007. The FF Plus, however, continued to request the figures by way of parliamentary questions and answers have finally been provided. (Complete questions and answers are attached).
In essence, the party asked for the number of attacks and murders that took place in every province since 2012 to be disclosed. From the answer it can be gleaned that attacks increased (561 attacks) over the last year (2017/18), while there was a decrease in attacks over the previous three years.
The figures show that over the last six years since 2012, there were 3059 attacks altogether (on average, that is 509,8 per year) in which 338 people were killed (on average, that is 56,3 per year).
During this time, most of the attacks took place in the North West province (722 attacks) and Gauteng (644 attacks). The province with the highest number of murders during this time, however, is Gauteng (69 murders) and then the North West and KwaZulu-Natal (61 murders each).
If these figures are compared to other available sources, then they seem to be fairly reliable. It is regrettable that these statistics were swept under the rug under the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.
Without the necessary statistics on crime, one is left groping in the dark and then it is not possible to take meaningful action and implement preventative measures.
In the interim, the FF Plus will continue with its action plan to inform the international community of the exploits and particularly the cruelty of murders in South Africa by actively liaising with, amongst others, the European Parliament and governments as well as the United Nations (UN) through the FF Plus’s UNPO membership.
In this regard, statistics on farm attacks and murders released by the government will surely carry more weight than the statistics of other institutions.
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