Piet Gouws and PH `Tienie’ Groenewald
A SECOND LOOK
A serious problem has developed in the platteland. Brutal attacks against the farming community have reached such alarming proportions that, even though farmers are creating security structures to ensure their own safety and that of their labourers, the number of farmers in certain districts on the Highveld has decreased substantially over the past four years.
A report released by the South African Agricultural Union earlier this year revealed that 2 730 attacks were carried out on farms between 1992 and 1997; and 464 farmers had been murdered between 1994 and February 1998. The number of farmers murdered as since risen to more than 500.
According to the farming community, there is increasing evidence suggesting a pattern to the attacks.
In many cases farms are observed for long periods before the attacks, virtually no household goods are stolen – negating the claim that the attacks are motivated by crime, and the victims are often subjected to monstrous cruelty and sadistic torture. In some cases, attackers have waited for hours for the farmer to return, with the sole purpose to kill.
The government and President Nelson Mandela have been approached by farmers, agricultural unions and political parties to intervene.
The South African Police Service insists that 99% of the murders are not politically motivated, but attributable to crime. A report by National Intelligence indicated that no political motive for the murders could be found.
Freedom Front leader Constand Viljoen was astounded by the report and insisted a judicial commission be appointed to investigate the real motive for the killings. He said the government should show the same alacrity as it did when appointing a judicial commission of inquiry into rugby matters.
The president’s representative, Parks Mankahlana, insists a commission of inquiry will not be appointed. The police, he says, must handle the problem.
So far police action has been reactive rather than proactive and farm attacks are escalating.
Farmers are in agreement that if the killings are not political then the government is admitting it has lost control and cannot guarantee their safety. If this is so, then they must protect themselves – they must take the law into their own hands. One can hardly imagine a more bizarre situation – a recipe for total anarchy.
Few people realise the effects these attacks have on the country’s economy.
It is estimated that in 1994 approximately 1,2-million labourers were employed on commercial farms. In four years, this number has decreased to 900 000 and farmers are continuing to cut down on labour. The retrenched labourers and their dependants, as well as the labourers of murdered farmers, find themselves in the squatter camps where they swell the ranks of the jobless.
Towns in the platteland that depend on the farming community experience a sharp decline in economic activity as farmers leave the land or decrease farming activities.
In general, capital investments on farms are under severe pressure and farmers, not knowing what the future might hold, are reluctant to maintain infrastructure.
There is an increase in racial tensions and community activities are sharply reduced because farmers in certain areas can no longer travel safely by night or leave families unprotected.
Farmers have lost faith in the government and have decided that it cannot ensure the safety of all people. They now appeal to the international community for help and intervention. Farmers have vowed that this appeal will not go unheard.
For a country with an unemployment problem, limited foreign reserves, a weak currency and a heavy dependence on foreign investments, these calls might be the beginning of the end.
For decades South Africa has prided itself on being one of the few countries that was not only self- sufficient as far as food production was concerned, but also a net exporter of agricultural products.
Now criminal activity and the inability of the government to adequately address the problems of farm attacks and murders may change this situation for good.
The case of the farming community is self-explanatory. For the good of the South African community these attacks must be stopped and the government must now show the political will and ability to do it.
Dr Piet Gouws, MP, and retired major- general PH “Tienie” Groenewald, MP, are, respectively, Freedom Front representatives on agriculture and security