President Cyril Ramaphosa's denial of farm murders and land grabbing in South Africa at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York is dishonest and comes down to a blatant lie. It is a poor attempt to pull the wool over the international community's eyes.
The President is either totally ignorant or he is busy trying to create a false impression with the United Nations (UN) and the rest of the world, particularly with regard to farm murders.
The fact the police has recently released statistics on farm murders and attacks as well as earlier police reports on farm attacks go to show that farm attacks and murders are a reality and, therefore, it is incomprehensible that the President of our country is in denial about it and thus lets our farmers down.
On the one hand, he says that farmers are important, but then on the other, he sells them out abroad.
A police report compiled as far back as 2003, found that the reasons for farm murders are political in nature; that it is related to the land issue, that racism plays a role and that general crime is another contributing factor.
If the President truly wanted to be honest with the world, he should have asked for international help to see how the world can contribute to effectively combat crime in South Africa, and in particular farm murders, which is partly the result of the inadequate rural safety system and strategy in South Africa.
It is a well-known fact that land grabs have taken place at various places in South Africa and that the land grabbers were only successfully removed by means of a court order in a few of the incidents. There number of illegal land occupations (land grabs) far exceed the number of cases where illegal land occupants are removed by means of a court order. That is the reality in South Africa.
Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus, will raise the matter in Parliament and will insist that the President must explain these false statements.
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