Cape Town - Black First Land First (BLF) called on black South Africans to not support minority rights movement AfriForum and other organisations in their #BlackMonday protests against the killing of farmers.
This comes after thousands of people across the country demonstrated by wearing black clothing in marches against the killing of farmers.
The demonstrations were planned by a Cape Town-based group called Genoeg is Genoeg after a farmer was murdered at a Klapmuts farm near Stellenbosch earlier this month.
This is the fourth attack in the Western Cape since the beginning of this month. Farmers were attacked in Plettenberg Bay, in Ceres and in Philadelphia.
Nationally there have been 341 farm attacks this year, with 70 people murdered, compared to 339 attacks and 64 murders last year.
Civil rights group AfriForum released statistics that showed commercial farmers are 4.5 times more likely to be killed than the South African population as a whole.
BLF called on citizens to wear black clothes to mourn thousands of farmworkers it claims are still “slaves on farms”. BLF’s national deputy spokesperson Brian Tloubatla said the movement stood with farmworkers, “not the racist, violent land thieves”.
BLF urged the government to protect farmworkers and to expropriate land owned by white farmers without compensation.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, however, warned against violent protest action and blocking of the roads. He said the police would ensure that anyone who acted in an unlawful manner would face consequences.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the rural safety crisis affects all who live in rural areas, farmers, farmworkers, their families and other residents.
EFF spokesperson Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi denounced the demonstrations as consisting of privileged individuals who benefited from a racist past.
Cosatu also bashed the “farmers’ racist march”.