South African farm attacks

This picture illustrates the graves of white farmers killed and attacked by blacks in South Africa. 90% of the farmers who are murdered are whites, although successful black, Indian and colored farmers are also murdered. South Africa has earned a reputation for being one of the world’s most dangerous countries for visitors; the ANC has not done anything to reduce the crime rates — instead, they keep blaming everything on Apartheid for much of the things they’ve failed at.

South African farm attacks (Afrikaans: plaasaanvalle) are violent crimes against mainly white people (white genocide), including murder, assault and robbery, that take place on farms in South Africa. The South African farming community has suffered from attacks for many years.

History

The cmarried ouple Daniel "Danie" (82 y.) and Hybrecht "Breggie" (73 y.) Brand were killed together with their daughter Elizabeth "Elzabie" (53 y.) on 26 July 2020 on their farm in Hartswater in the North Cape of South Africa. Four men between the ages of 18 and 36 and a 42-year-old woman robbed (two cars, mobile phones, jewelry and cash) and then kidnapped them. Breggie and Elzabie were raped multiple times before having their skulls smashed in with a rock. Elzabie had both of her eyes gouged out and one of her breasts was cut off. As of 2 August 2020, it is not yet clear whether before or after the bloody deed. Husband and father Danie was stabbed and hung alive in a tree, where he bled to death in agony. Next to him hung his violated wife. After a search operation, also with the help of a drone, Elzabie's body was found in Takaneng Township on the morning of 28 July 2020. Her parents, around 10 km away, were found at 5 p.m. the same afternoon. Daughter Heidie, married to Wikus Taljaard: "We live in a nightmare come true. My parents and my sister were murdered by cowards.” The police were able to identify the perpetrators within a few hours and arrest three of the five people involved in the crime at 11 p.m. on 27 July 2020.

The rights organization AfriForum in 2018 stated that White farmers in South Africa have the most dangerous job in the country, are twice as likely to be murdered than police, and are killed at four times the rate of the wider community. In 2016, there were 82 killings and 423 attacks according to the organization, although these numbers cannot be verified, since the South African government has refused to release farm murder statistics since 2007.

"Some of the killings are reported to have been barbaric, with farm owners tortured, raped, burned alive and slaughtered in front of their families. Farm attack victims are usually restrained with shoe laces, telephone wires or electric cables, according to a previous AfriForum report. Some have had their nails pulled out, had boiling water poured over their bodies and been beaten to death with makeshift weapons. 'Some of the murders have been accompanied by gratuitous violence and torture that can only be explained as racial hatred,' Australian National University international law expert Associate Professor Jolyon Ford told SBS. [...] Ernst Roets, AfriForum's vice president, said last year 'political factors' were fuelling the violent attacks. 'We are concerned about hate speech, political leaders who... would say for example "the white farmers should be blamed for everything",' he said. The situation has worsened since the ruling African National Congress joined with the Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF) earlier this month and announced a motion to confiscate white-owned land without compensation."

Later in 2018:

"AfriForum says there has been a “sharp” increase in farm attacks since January. [...] During the first six months of 2017‚ 157 farm attacks took place and 40 farm murders were committed. Since the start of January‚ 210 farm attacks occurred and 33 farm murders were committed‚ AfriForum said. Ernst Roets‚ deputy chief executive of AfriForum and the author of the book 'Kill the Boer'‚ which will be launched this week‚ said farm murders took place at an unusual frequency and were unusually cruel. “The widely spread allegation‚ that farm murders are currently at its lowest point ever‚ is plain false. To be honest‚ our verified data shows that farm murders have been increasing since 2011. Although less farm murders were committed in the first six months of 2018 than in the first six months of 2017‚ we are gravely concerned about the sharp increase in farm attacks‚” Roets said."

AfriForum has also stated:

"It is false that the number of farm murders in South Africa is decreasing. Statistics on farm murders by the agricultural union TAU SA – including verifiable victim names, farm names and dates when the murders were committed – confirmed that farm murders were at their highest level in 13 years last year. A well-grounded PoliticsWeb analysis of the South African Police Service (SAPS) statistics further indicates that the police statistics used by AgriSA to create the impression that farm murders are decreasing, have serious shortcomings. Those who try to downplay farm murders by showing that the number of farm murders is lower than 20 years ago, ignore the fact that the number of commercial farmers has almost halved over the same period. PoliticsWeb also found that a white farmer’s chance of being killed is estimated to be 3,2 times higher than the country’s already outrageously high average murder rate, confirming that farm murders are a serious crisis that needs urgent attention."

The South African Police has been stated to have been actively involved in some of the attacks. Genocide Watch has stated that the killings "constitute early warning signs" of a genocide against the Boers, and has criticised the South African government for its inaction on the issue.

Farm murders in South Africa

South African farmers constitute statistically the most vulnerable population group in the world. They are three times more likely to be killed than a policeman in a country that has one of the highest murder rates in the world. The reasons behind this are myriad. Isolation, government’s loss of control over immigration, a lack of police protection, the disbanding of traditional defense units, the rise of anti-white hate speech since the death of Mandela, political apathy from government, post Apartheid land restitution and it’s manipulation by politicians. President Zuma recently called for land appropriation without compensation, echoing the cries of black right wing group the Economic Freedom Fighters. He is using this issue to try to remain in power in the face of massive corruption charges. The E.F.F is using this issue as a way to try to come to power. More than 4000 farmers have been murdered since 1994, according to Afriforum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union. In the first two months of 2017 alone there have been over 90 attacks on farms, with 30 murders. The police are prohibited from keeping records on farm attacks, ordered instead to call them house robberies or business robberies. The idea is that this kind of statistic is politically charged and bad for investment. In 1994 there were over 105,000 commercial farms across the country. Most of these were white owned. Now there are less than 30,000, most of these are run by farmers who are of pensionable age. Inflation is beyond a living wage, unemployment is 35% and rising and of the 35,000 estimated black farmers, most are small scale. Those black farmers speak of a lack of skills training as well as a lack of funding from Government. This same government does little to protect the farmers who feed the nation. The poorest class in the nation will no longer be able to afford rising food prices. Violence will be inevitable. Land restitution is now in it [...]

Downplaying

Human Rights Watch

The anti-White Human Rights Watch stated in 2001 that they think the term "farm attacks" (plaasmoorde in Afrikaans farm murders) is misleading, because according to them the farm attacks "are nothing more than simply increased crime rates". The organization went even further with their anti-white rhetoric and has even criticised the South African government for giving the issue "too much" attention at the expense of the rights of other South Africans, such as farm labourers (including presumably even some of the murderers themselves!).

Terminology and definition

Instead of acting and solving the problem of the murders by using for example police-raids on the perpetrators, the South African "government" prefers to have talks and discussions about for example terminology and definitions. The terminology and definitions must be continuously debated in order to make sure that they are not "racist". Some examples of these "interesting" discussions are:

• South African statutory law does not define a "farm attack" as a specific crime. Rather, the term is used to refer to a number of different crimes committed against persons specifically on commercial farms or smallholdings.

• According to the South African Police Service National Operational Co-ordinating Committee:

"Attacks on farms and smallholdings refer to acts aimed at the person of residents, workers and visitors to farms and smallholdings, whether with the intent to murder, rape, rob or inflict bodily harm. In addition, all actions aimed at disrupting farming activities as a commercial concern, whether for motives related to ideology, labour disputes, land issues, revenge, grievances, racist concerns or intimidation, should be included."

• The safety and security MEC for Mpumalanga, Dina Pule, has disagreed with this definition and has stated that a farm attack is "when the sole motive is to take the life of the person who resides on the farm and nothing else." Human Rights Watch, of course, has criticised the use of the term "farm attacks", as they suggest this is "reinforcing, through the use of the word "attack", the idea that there is a military or terrorist basis for the crimes, rather than a criminal one."

Committee of Inquiry

Instead of immediately stopping the crimes, the so-called "National Commissioner of Police" appointed a "Committee of Inquiry into Farm Attacks" in 2001. The purpose of the committee was to "inquire into the ongoing spate of attacks on farms, which include violent criminal acts such as murder, robbery, rape, etc, to determine the motives and factors behind these attacks and to make recommendations on their findings". The Committee used the definition for farm attacks as that supplied by the SAPS. The so-called findings were published in a report only after several years and after many more killings (namely on 31 July, 2003) and were very apologetic towards the perpetrators, while at the same time the "finding" downplayed the gravity of the situation. The main "findings" of the report were that:

• Perpetrators tended to be young, unemployed black men overwhelmingly from dysfunctional family backgrounds

• Only a small proportion of attacks involve murder

• Theft was committed in almost all cases - in cases where no theft appeared to take place, it was usually because the attackers were disturbed

• White people were not targeted exclusively - in 2001 61% of farm attack victims were white

The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) showed that a number of the report's "findings" not based on the reality, for example the TUA showed that theft does not adequately explain the majority of the attacks.

Criticism on the South African government

The South African government has been rightly criticised both for not doing more to prevent farm attacks. But at the same time it has been wrongly criticized by those who, openly or not, welcome the continuation of the farm attacks for "giving the issue a disproportionate amount of attention".

Justified criticism

• Gideon Meiring, chairperson of the TAU's safety and security committee, criticised the South African Police Service for failing to prevent farm attacks, stating that the police "are not part of the solution but part of the bloody problem". Meiring has assisted farming communities in setting up private armed patrols in their area.

• A number of journalists have been vocal on this issue. In 2005 South African journalist, Jani Allan appeared on a number of radio shows broadcast to millions of listeners and discussed the plight of many Afrikaner farming families and the wider Afrikaner community. She appealed to Americans to sponsor the emigration of desperate Afrikaners. Miss Allan is regarded as an outspoken critic of the ANC government as well as an ambassador for the Afrikaner cause.

Criticism of those who, openly or not, welcome the continuation of the farm attacks

• Human Rights Watch criticised the government for placing too much emphasis on protecting farmers, at the expense of protecting farm workers from abuse by farm owners. They suggest that "farm attacks" are given a disproportionately high media and political focus. "Murders on farms (of owners, or of workers by owners) are given an individual attention that many other killings are not."

• In February 2003, President Mbeki announced the disbanding of the commando system over six years, to be replaced by 'specialised police units'. The Democratic Alliance has stated that this action is a 'total disaster'

See also

• Kill the boer

• Eugene Terre'Blanche

External links

• Damned Lies and Statistics About Black-on-White Farm Murders in South Africa