Johannesburg - National police commissioner Riah Phiyega believes the police's safety plans are working after their statistics showed a 30 percent drop in farm murders since 2010, Beeld reported on Monday.
“It was positive. There was an annual decline since 2003, especially for one financial year (2012-13),” she told Beeld.
She attributed it to work regarding countrywide safety and communities' awareness and safety measures.
The police have not released official farm murder figures for seven years, but have kept records, Beeld reported.
Their figures showed that 271 people were murdered on farms or small-holdings in the past five years.
Farm murders declined by 71 in 2010/11 to 48 in 2013/14. The latest figures showed 36 people were murdered between April and December 2014.
The Transvaal Agricultural Union disputed the figures saying that according to their own channels, such as social media, there were at least 63 murders in 2012, 62 in 2013, and 67 in 2014.
Their figures included 45 murders inexplicably left out of police information. Their figures were per calendar year, not financial year.
Sapa