The following is a press statement from AfriForum

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Yesterday, AfriForum provided the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, with details of the eight confirmed farm murders that occurred between October and December 2024. This follows in response to Mchunu’s statement on Friday in which he challenged AfriForum to provide the facts about these murders to him. He also reiterated that the latest statistics by the South African Police Service (SAPS) show that there was only one farm murder in these three months. AfriForum disputes this figure and argues that the Minister is either uninformed or is deliberately attempting to downplay the scale of the farm murder crisis.

The current dispute comes after the civil rights organisation’s repeated efforts to engage with the government regarding the ongoing farm murder crisis. A request to set up an urgent meeting with the Minister was sent in January, but this request, like numerous previous attempts to discuss farm murders with the government, was completely ignored.

According to Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s Chief Spokesperson for Community Safety, the civil rights organisation has been keeping track of all confirmed farm attacks and murders for years. These attacks are classified based on the SAPS’ own definition of farm attacks as contained in the Rural Safety Strategy (RSS).

In one of the attacks that AfriForum presented to Mchunu, a mother and daughter were kidnapped and murdered in October 2024. “Minister Mchunu’s claim that only one farm murder took place from October to December 2024 communicates to families of these victims that farm murders are not a priority. We cannot allow politicking to take precedence over the reality of farm murders and the generally intolerable levels of crime in South Africa. We need commitment, leadership and collaboration to fight this crime pandemic. The government must now join forces with private organisations if we are to make a real difference. We can only hope that the Minister shares this view,” says Broodryk.

He stresses that AfriForum’s neighbourhood watch structures maintain strong working relationships with the SAPS at ground-level and continue to support law enforcement in their efforts to combat crime despite government leaders’ lack of political will to acknowledge the extent of farm attacks and address the problem. Community-driven safety initiatives have proven effective in assisting the SAPS with rural crime prevention, tracking down criminals and securing convictions. However, the political leadership’s lack of commitment undermines these efforts.

“The fact that we have a president who denied, in front of the international media, that farm murders are taking place in this country and who refuses to condemn political leaders chanting ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’ is a clear indicator that the South African government responds to crime selectively,” says Broodryk.

AfriForum, meanwhile, reaffirmed that it will continue to monitor and document farm murders to ensure that the crisis is not ignored or downplayed. The organisation remains committed to protecting rural communities and working with all role players who genuinely seek to address the scourge of violent crime in South Africa.

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