Farm attacks in South Africa are violent crimes that happen on farms in South Africa and are known in Afrikaans as plaasaanvalle. Attacks target farm workers, who are typically black, and farmers, who are mostly white. Farmers of color frequently experience violent assaults. Although there is no official legal definition for the phrase, media outlets and public personalities in South Africa and elsewhere have discussed such attacks. To accurately assess the murder rate among South African farmers, there aren’t enough data.
It’s cause
After apartheid, 87% of the country’s land was owned by the white minority (Walker and Dubb 2013). In 1996, there were 40.5 million people living in South Africa (Black: 76.7 percent, White: 10.9 percent, Colored: 8.9 percent, Indian/Asian: 2.6%, and Unspecified/Other: 0.9 percent) (Lahiff 2007:3). By 2012, communal black areas made up 15% of the land, the state owned 10%, and the remaining 8% was used for other purposes, including urban areas. The white group owned 67% of the land (Walker and Dubb 2013).
According to the African Union Commission-Economic Commission for Africa-African Development Bank [AUC-ECA-AfDB] Consortium (2010), the white minority group in South Africa directly conquered land, which the Apartheid state then solidified. Black South Africans are still marginalized in terms of land ownership and access, particularly in the farming sector, despite the post-Apartheid state’s efforts to redistribute land through a reform scheme. According to Obeng-Odoom (2012:165), segregationist practices that concentrated land in the hands of White people characterized land tenure throughout the Apartheid era.
The settler-colonial era in South Africa was marked by oppression and brutality, inequality, and land eviction. Thus, shame, historical injustice, current inequity, fear, rage, and disappointment are the main forces influencing society (Thiven 2015). Farm dispute resolution should be based on Thiven’s understanding of the land atmosphere.
Number of farmers killed
According to the SAPS’s crime figures for 2018/19 and 2019/20, which focus on violence on farms and small holdings, there were 47 and 49 murders, respectively (SAPS 2019:37; SAPS 2020:31). The increased murder rate also affected the police to some extent. In the reviewed year, 35 police officers who were working and 38 who weren’t were killed (SAPS 2020:28). These figures demonstrate the high rates of crime and homicide in South Africa as a whole.
Official statistics on “farm attacks,” which include murders committed on property utilized for both commercial and non-commercial agricultural purposes, are compiled by the South African police department.
For the financial year, which in South Africa runs from April 1 to March 31, the numbers are compiled.
However, they are not frequently released. This is so that the statistics may be audited, according to the police.
Police data reveals that 74 persons were killed on farms in the 2016–17 fiscal year. According to data from the agricultural organization, 82 persons were slain in farm attacks in 2017—59 of them white farmers and 2 of them black.
There were 15 murders in the first three months of 2018, including 8 white farmers.
Since these totals are given by the calendar year rather than the fiscal year, they cannot be directly compared to the police data.
According to police data, there were 16 more farm murders in 2016–17 than the year before, which represents a rise to levels last seen in 2010–11.
According to the union’s research, there were a further 11 white farmers who were killed in 2016 and another 10 in 2017.
