The South African Farm Attacks
Farmers; the reason most of the world’s population have food on their tables. A savage; a callous and malicious individual. So what exactly brings these two terms together? The South African farm attacks does.
To put it in context, farmers have been reported to be attacked in South Africa as early as the late 90’s. After 2002, the number of deaths that were derived from these attacks slowly decreased though there were slight fluctuations. However, in the period of 2016–2017 the deaths peaked up to 74. This was a 51% increase from the previous year which sparked tension between the farming community of South Africa.
These attacks were generally directed towards both the white South African farmers and coloured farmers. The rate of murder was higher for the white farmers compared to the those who were coloured. Since these revolting attacks were not greatly reported of, the data of the total number of attacks may not be accurate.
According to the South African government, the number of attacks and deaths showed a rise during the time period of 2012 to 2018. Due to the ratio of murders weighing greater amongst the white farmers, there have been conspiracies that this could be a white genocide. This has not been confirmed due to the lack of data thus, this remains for its namesake — a conspiracy theory.
The government has also gone further to address its beliefs that these attacks were motivated by robbery. Along with this motive, violent criminal acts such as rape, murder, and etc. have been said to be included. But why rob the farmers? Well the African authorities have not given a definite conclusion though there have some debate from the public in this matter.
Recently, there were two separate attacks on the same day. One of which involved Chantel Kershaw, a 44 year old woman who was sexually assaulted and strangled to death. While the other attacked towards Brendin Horner who was tortured to death. Both incidents caused fury among the farmers which called protests among them for the authorities to take more action.
We as humans have found a way to evolve ourselves through greed. Just look at the planet. Most societies thrive through globalisation — we want what another person has because to us, what we have will never be enough. But through the act of greed there always has and have been boundaries. These boundaries however have always been ignored by society to the point we go as low as attacking farmers.
The lack of media coverage in this matter just shows how much we care for the pillars of a nation’s economy. Is it ethical? We have resorted to disregard matters that do not encompass us. Before you hit snooze, do think, is this really the world you want the future generations to grow in?