Kimberley - The ongoing criminal attacks on the farming community in South Africa and the accompanying range of violent crimes such as murder, rape and robbery remain a controversial issue.
According to civil rights group Afriforum, which handed over a memorandum on farm murders at the Union Buildings on Wednesday, the fight against farm murders was being lost.
About 50 members of Afriforum picketed at the Union Buildings.
Farm murder and attack statistics for the 2016/2017 financial year revealed by the AfriForum Research Institute indicated that there had been 357 farm attacks in the 2016/2017 period, with 74 accompanying murders.
Since February, 15 farmers had been murdered, the civil rights organisation said.
In the memorandum, the organisation requested the deployment of temporary rural safety units and for the government to refrain from inciting the occupation of land and use of violence against farmers.
Among the protesters was singer and activist Steve Hofmeyr, who didn’t shy away from giving his views.
“The government is not doing enough to protect its citizens, both black and white."
“We are sick and tired of the incompetence."
“What else must happen before they can hear our cries?”
According to AfriForum’s research department, the most murders occurred in Gauteng, followed by Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
Statistics also showed that most farm attacks occurred on Saturdays, followed by Sundays and then Thursdays.
The most common times for the attacks were between midnight and 6am, and between 6pm and midnight.
Deputy chief executive AfriForum, Ernst Roets, said that in the past years hundreds of farmers had been killed on their farms, many in the most brutal way imaginable.
“We are fed up with the increasing number of farm attacks and murders and the government’s unwillingness or simple inability to address these crimes,” he said.
Roets said acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane declared farm murders a priority crime last year, but nothing had been done.
He said: “Did you know, Mr President, that South Africa has approximately 32 000 commercial farmers, who, despite your party’s optimistic National Development Plan, have shown continuous economic decline?”
AfriForum also handed over a petition signed by 175000 people to the Presidency