FARM MURDERS: A NATIONAL PRIORITY?
2012
Johan Burger
Crime & Justice Programme
INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES
Presentation Outline
• Definition of farm attacks
• Some stats on farm attacks & farm murders
• Comparing real figures with ratios
• Who are the victims?
• Brief history of rural safety since the late-90’s
• The Rural Protection Plan (RPP)
• The National Rural Safety Strategy (NRSS)
• Conclusion
Definition of ‘farm attack’
Attacks on farms and smallholdings [Acts of violence against
persons on] 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 [all acts of violence against the infra-structure
and property in the rural community 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.
[Cases related to domestic violence or liquor abuse, or resulting from
commonplace social interaction between people are excluded from the
definition]
Farm attacks & farm murders
2001/02 – 2006/07 (SAPS Annual Report)
Six year total: 4 869
Fifteen year total: 10 991
Twenty one year total: 11 719
24,8%
Six year total: 587
Fifteen year total: 1 841
Twenty one year total: 2 207
Farm attacks & farm murders
2007 – 2012 (TAUSA figures)
Murder: Comparing real figures & ratios
(2011)
Who are the victims?
From the Report of the Committee of Inquiry (2003):
•1 398 victims between 1991-2002:
- 61,6% white
- 33,3% black
- 4,4% Asian
- 0,7% coloured
•12,3% of the victims were raped:
- 29% white
- 71% black
Who are the victims? (Contd)
From TAUSA records (1990-2012):
• 1 022 farmers murdered:
- 951 white
- 71 black
•407 direct family murdered:
- 375 white
- 32 black
• 115 workers murdered:
- 10 white
- 105 black
Rural safety: Brief history of changing priorities
• 1997 – Calls by organised agriculture – Govt instructs NOCOC to
develop a strategy to improve safety on farms & smallholdings
• October 1997 - Rural Protection Plan (RPP) implemented
• October 1998 – Pres Mandela convenes Rural Safety Summit to
‘deal with rural safety in general and farm attacks in particular’.
• 1999/2000 – NOCOC/JOINTS establishes Priority Committee on
Rural Safety to manage RPP and related issues
• April 2001 – Appointment of Committee of Inquiry into farm
attacks (Report published July 2003)
• Feb 2003 – Pres Mbeki – announces in parliament the ‘phasing
out’ of the commandos and the creation in their place of ‘a new
system whose composition and ethos accord with the requirements of all rural communities’
Rural Protection Plan (RPP)
• Implemented – October 1997
• Focus: Protection of all persons on farms & smallholdings
• Pillars:
o Home & hearth protection (farmers, families and workers) Responsible for own security & act as first respondents to
and provide assistance to neighbours
o Area-bound reaction forces (Comprised of commando units)
National Rural Safety Strategy (NRSS)
• Implemented – July 2011 (8 years after Pres Mbeki’s statement)
(Comprehensive strategy – provides i.a. for station level rural safety plans)
• Focus: The safety and security of all persons in rural areas
(including on farms and smallholdings); improved community
policing & crime combating in rural areas; in support of rural
development; etc.
• Pillars:
o Enhanced service delivery (supported
by sector policing and police reservists)
o Integrated approach
o Community safety awareness (incl home
& hearth protection)
o Rural development
Conclusion
• Farmers are disproportionally targeted for attacks compared to
other groups and South Africans in general
• Current strategic approach to rural security is too broad &
general and not focused on the actual threat (i.e. attacks on
farms and the murder of farmers and persons on farms and not
rural crime in general)
• Overarching strategies such as the National Crime Combating
Strategy and the National Rural Safety Strategy are inadequate
for specific threats such as farm attacks & farm murders
• Farm attacks & farm murders should be recognised as a national
crisis and addressing it should again become a national priority
requiring a focused strategic approach