Police must release farm attack statistics
AfriForum has been leading a campaign that the Department of Police and SAPS must release annual statistics regarding farm attacks for a while.
Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, said that it is not as difficult to release figures on farm attacks as the Department of Police and the South African Police Service (SAPS) imply.
Roets explained that several crimes are included in the term ‘farm attack’. These include murder, robbery, rape and assault. It is often argued that it doesn’t make sense to release statistics regarding farm attacks, since these crimes are already counted among other crime statistics: Farm murders fall under murders and farm attacks fall under assault.
Roets explained that the following definition is currently included in the National Rural Safety Strategy (NRSS) of 2011:
Acts of violence against persons on farms and smallholdings refer to acts aimed at persons residing on, working on or visiting farms and smallholdings, whether with the intent to murder, rape, rob or to inflict bodily harm. In addition, all acts of violence against the infrastructure and property in the rural community aimed at disrupting legal farming activities as a commercial concern, whether the motives are related to ideology, land disputes, land issues, revenge, grievances, racist concerns or intimidation are included.
In the absence of decisive action by the Department of Police and the SAPS, AfriForum will continue its campaign to mobilise communities to attend to their own safety better.