The African National Congress on Tuesday strongly condemned the murder of Free State farmer, Attie Potgieter and his family.
“We would like to reaffirm our position of fighting crime wherever it takes place and regardless of who it affects,” spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.
He said the ruling party was against all forms of crime in the country.
“In the recent past, the ANC government has demonstrated swiftness in fighting crime, resulting in the reduction in farm murders.”
He said it was unfortunate that some individuals had used the Potgieter family murder to attach racial undertones to it when crime knew no race or colour.
“Racially blurring issues of crime and justice can only serve to polarise our nation, instead of uniting it,” he said.
He said the ANC was happy with the support the family was receiving from the police and the community, which had led to the swift arrest of the suspects.
“We send our condolences to relatives of the Potgieter family. We believe that justice must take its course unreservedly and that those behind the murders must face the full might of the law.”
On Monday, Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said the ruling ANC had not said a word about the murder.
He said the country’s leaders should publicly condemn such killings, no matter who the victims were.
Attie Potgieter (40), his wife Wilna (36) and their three-year-old daughter Willemien were found murdered on their farm on Thursday last week. It seemed Potgieter had been stabbed, while his wife and daughter were shot.
Civil rights group AfriForum said the ANC’s condemnation of Potgieter murders would lack credibility as long as ruling party continued to justify the singing of songs with slogans such as the controversial “Shoot the Boer”.
AfriForum’s chief executive officer Kallie Kriel said the murders of the Potgieters made people more bitter because it took place in the same week during which the ANC had been trying to convince the high court in Johannesburg that the “shoot the Boer” slogan in ANC songs was not being meant literally.
“People are literally being killed on farms and efforts by the ANC to justify [Shoot the Boer] are absurd,” he said.
Kriel stated that because of the ANC’s refusal to desist from the use of the “Shoot the Boer” slogan, AfriForum would go ahead with its legal action to oppose the ANC’s appeal against the prohibition of this slogan. — Sapa