In the years 2015-2017, South African official data revealed between 58 and 74 farm murders each year, out of a total yearly murder count of 20,000 in South Africa; these estimates are largely compatible with those gathered by the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU), a farmers’ union.
Where in South Africa do the greatest farm killings occur?
The Free State and Mpumalanga had the highest number of farm killings, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. In the North West, no farm murders were reported. The rise in not just general crime but especially farm killings in KwaZulu-Natal is worrying.
Farmers, who are mainly white, and agricultural labourers, who are usually black, are the targets of the attacks. Black farmers are also targeted violently. The phrase has no clear legal definition, although similar attacks have been discussed by the media and public leaders in South Africa and elsewhere. There is insufficient data to determine the murder rate among South African farmers with confidence.
According to data given by the South African government in 2018, the number of farm attacks climbed between 2012 and 2018, however the number of farm killings declined year by year over the same period. During the same year, the agricultural organization AgriSA reported on police records indicating that farm murder rates had dropped to a third of what they had been in 1998, the lowest in 20 years.
Motives
The South African government thinks that the primary motivation for the attacks is robbery. In a 2017 interview, Afrikaner rights group Afriforum indicated that they do not believe that all attacks are motivated by racial hatred.
Statistics
According to Tshego’s (Short G / Sterling) media claims, around 3,158-3,811 South African farmers were slain in these assaults as of December 2011. According to Transvaal Agricultural Union self-reported figures, 1,544 persons were killed in farm assaults between 1990 and 2012. According to Reuters, the number of farmers of European heritage has declined by one-third since 1997, and news stories about farm killings have encouraged them to sell their estates. AfriForum said in January 2019 that the number of farm killings has fallen between 2017 and 2018, which it ascribed to farmers’ enhanced self-defense. AfriForum reported a doubling in the number of attacks in the Western Cape for the first half of 2019, to 16 attacks compared to the same period in 2018, despite the fact that this shift occurred against the backdrop of an elevated crime rate in the Western Cape. In 2019, there were 21,325 murder victims in South Africa, with 49 of them being white farmers, according to police records.
