Pretoria - Thousands of bikers from across the country placed white roses and crosses near the gates of the Union Buildings to register their unhappiness with farm killings and racism.
Some of the crosses bore the names of farmers killed in the past year.
Organiser Marinus Coetsee said that on August 4 various bikers clubs and bikers councils in Gauteng decided to ride to raise awareness. The idea had initially come from Gauteng, but it had spread countrywide with similar events in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere.
The bikers roared around the capital city and formed a 50km ring past the Union Buildings.
They observed a moment of silence, a helmet salute and short prayer for an end to farm murders and racism.
“Farmers need security, communication systems and a commando-type network that will help them, and they don't have that. But there are positives to establishing solid relationships between the authorities and farmers in communities if the effort is taken.”
Coetsee said some examples of the benefits of such collaborations could be evidenced with efforts conducted by authorities in the Limpopo and North West, that jointly managed to reduce the number of killings.
The number of farm killings last year was 57, and they were concerned about the gruesome manner in which the murders were executed, he said.
Biker Allen Cronje said he attended the ride as he wanted to help create awareness worldwide about this problem and hopefully be able to get the right people and parties to see this, and to get involved to try to stop it.
“We are hoping that someone does something because if we do not have farmers we do not have food.”
Louise van Niekerk said for her and her family, it was about showing South Africans that they (bikers) cared about farm killings irrespective of race as all of the victims were being targeted and killed by criminals.
Pretoria News