AfriForums Ian Cameron told Sky News that there have been more than 344 attacks on farms and and about 45 farm murders since the beginning of 2018. (Deaan Vivier/Netwerk 24/Gallo)
In an earlier version of this article the Mail and Guardian referred to Afriforum’s campaign against “so-called ‘white genocide'”. The organisation complained to the ombudsman, arguing they did not propagate the idea of “white genocide” and actively distanced themselves from this idea. The M&G argued that their continued referencing to targeted attacks on white Afrikaners and references to ethnic cleansing amounted to their endorsement of the theory of white genocide.
The ombudsman in his finding said: “Ethnic cleansing may amount to mass murders of a minority group, but that is not necessarily the case.”
The M&G apologises to Afriforum for suggesting they endorsed the idea of “white genocide” and for any possible damage that this could have done to its reputation.
A full version of the ruling can be found here.
AfriForum’s farm murder propaganda tour has now arrived in Australia.
Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s head of community safety, told Sky News Australia on Sunday that the group is travelling to various countries in an effort to dispel the “myth” that farm murders do not exist.
READ MORE: White genocide — How the big lie spread to the US and beyond
“We felt the need especially after our president, Cyril Ramaphosa … made it very clear that farm murders in South Africa is just a figment of the imagination, and we felt it very important that we come to Australia — and obviously other countries — to share the truth,” Cameron said.
AfriForum, whom the Mail & Guardian has described as an Afrikaner supremacist group because of their advocacy aimed entirely at the upliftment of white, Afrikaans speaking South Africans, has reportedly met with Andrew Hastie, chairperson of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, and has participated in a discussion on Sky News Australia’s programme ‘Outsiders’.
Earlier this year, the group made a similar visit to the United States to garner support for its fight against land expropriation without compensation and so-called “white genocide”.
AfriForum publicly lauded the success of this visit after US President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked his secretary of state Mike Pompeo “to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers”.
Cameron told Sky News that there have been more than 344 attacks on farms and and about 45 farm murders since the beginning of 2018. He does not cite his source of these numbers, though the murder statistic seems in line with the 2017/2018 crime statistics released by the South African Police Service in September.
According to this data, there were 62 murders on farms recorded between April 1 2017 to March 31 2018. Of those 62 killed on farms, 46 were white. The farm murders account for 0.3% of the 20 336 murders recorded during this period.
In March, a Mail & Guardian report revealed that the spike in advocacy against a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa can be traced to a co-ordinated campaign by another right-wing group, the Suidlanders.
The report was written in light of Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s suggestion that he was considering fast-tracking visas for white South African farmers, who he said needed to flee “horrific circumstances” for a “civilised country”.
Dutton told Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp publication The Daily Telegraph that the farmers “deserve special attention” because of land seizures and violence.
At the time of the report Simon Roche, the spokesperson for the Suidlanders, told the M&G that the promulgation of the message of South Africa’s “white genocide” to Europe and Australia could be directly attributed to his group’s 2017 tour of the US.
He said some local government politicians and even some mayors in Australia have contacted the Suidlanders and offered to assist with funding and lawyers to process their refugee applications.
AfriForum’s recent Australia visit coincides with what seems to be increased political will in the country to defend the rights of white people.
On Monday, the Australian Senate reportedly narrowly voted down a controversial motion condemning “anti-white racism”.
According toThe Guardian the senate voted 31 to 28 to reject a motion put by One Nation party partly leader Pauline Hanson which acknowledged the “deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation” and “it is OK to be white”.