Farm attackers’ sentences reduced; AfriForum demands tougher punishment

The sentences of two convicted farm attackers, who brutally attacked Pieter and Henriëtta Botes on their Mpumalanga farm, Remhoogte in 2011, were reduced with 15 years. This, after a judge of the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the magistrate who sentenced them to 35 consecutive years’ imprisonment “overemphasized the gravity of the crime”.

“The court reduced the sentence of Mzakwe Isaac Madonsela and John Sipho Nkosi out of sympathy. This decision left me speechless. AfriForum demands tougher sentences for farm attackers,” Ian Cameron, Head of Community Safety at AfriForum, said.

Cameron says farm attacks are a crisis which adversely affects victims, their loved-ones and farm workers and their loved-ones as well as the community in its entirety.

“Research by the Institute of Security Studies indicates that the chance for a farmer to get murdered is twice as likely as that of police officers.”

General Riah Phiyega, National Police Commissioner, admitted at the public trial of the South African Human Rights Commission into farm murders that about 245 farmers were murdered in about 2 227 farm attacks in South Africa in the past four years.

“We appeal to Government and the Ministry of Police to prioritise farm attacks/murders. Farm attackers should also be punished tougher to convey the message that these brutal crimes will not be tolerated.”