Concerns have been raised over the potentially crippling impact on the agriculture sector of a spate of farm attacks over the past two months.
There have been more than 30 attacks since the beginning of 2017 - and 8 500 farm attacks and 930 farm murders over the past 14 years, according to Agri SA chairman of Rural Safety, Kobus Breytenbach. He said the situation was not helpful to South Africa which was striving for sustained food security and rural development.
He was quoted in a media statement put out by the industry body in response to the brutal farm murders in Balfour, Mpumalanga last week in which four people lost their lives.
Agri SA said that although it was “doing everything possible to improve the situation”, it had become difficult to do so as confidence in the police and the courts was diminishing.
According to the Victims of Crime survey released last week by Statistics South Africa, satisfaction levels with police, as well as police visibility during the last five years, has declined with only 64.2% of households satisfied with the police in their area.
The group also said that it was vital to the agricultural community that they worked together with the police within the framework of the Rural Protection Strategy to prevent these crimes.
The Institute for Security Services (ISS) has said that it is crucially important for government to prioritise the security of the farming community as attacks on farmers can cripple the country’s farming sector.
Corporate liaison Kobus Visser told FTW online that Agri SA had addressed the Balfour murders with the police’s Rural Safety Priority Committee last week and had urged police to further investigate the motives behind the incident.
