President Cyril Ramaphosa's silence about the farm attacks and murders sends a loud and clear message to the agricultural community that the President has no regard for farmers' wellbeing.
Despite the FF Plus's urgent request for President Ramaphosa to seriously consider farm murders after he said nothing on the matter in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), he still did not say a word about it in his reply to the SONA today.
It is now clear that the government has turned its back on the farmers in our country. To combat gang violence a special gang unit was established in the police force. That is indeed the right way to combat a specific crime.
It, however, raises the question of why the same thing cannot be done to address the pressing problem of farm attacks? Why does the President refuse to admit that it is a reality and that it jeopardises food security in our country?
As a result, the FF Plus is calling on all farmers to organise themselves so as to take care of their own safety. It is their constitutional right and cannot be put off any longer. The time has come for rural communities to ensure their own safety.
To make things worse, the President made it very clear that expropriation without compensation is a reality and that the government will proceed to implement it. This does not only affect farmers, before long everyone in South Africa will have no certainty when it comes to property rights.
It looms like a dark cloud over future investments and dreams of an economy that will recover and grow.
The only thing that South Africans, and the agricultural community in particular, can be sure of today is that the government does not care about their safety nor about property rights. Not everyone in South Africa shares President Ramaphosa's dream about a better South Africa. For many it is just a nightmare.
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