‘We have started speaking of good and bad murders’
IN my world we talk about deaths that don’t include torture as “good murders”. We welcome Peter Dutton’s offer of help, but South African farmers want safety at home, writes Ian Cameron.
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I write to you tonight after just returning from yet another farm attack scene not far from Pretoria, and as I arrived I was informed of another farm murder just a province away.
This time it happened in the Western Cape’s wine country on the farm named Wolwefontein. Martin Louw, a renowned community man in his 60s is now another statistic among the 97 other attacks that have occurred since January 1, 2018. Martin woke up and confronted an attacker in his house on a farm after which the attacker stabbed him to death.
What leaves me baffled is that we have started speaking of “good” or “bad” murders. In Martin’s case, he was lucky not to have been tortured before being killed. Hannatjie Ludik, 56, and her husband Callie, although alive, sometimes wish that they had rather not survived as they live with the thoughts of the night that Hannatjie was repeatedly gang-raped by three of their attackers on a farm.
The fact that people here, myself included have started differentiating between what good and bad murders on farms are, indicates a society that has become sick from all the violence.
Earlier today I was informed of a protest by a political party named the Economic Freedom Fighters where they were singing the song, “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer”. Even though this song has been ‘banned’ by means of a High Court order, due to it inciting violence and being hate speech, it is still widely accepted as general political rhetoric.
It means that even after 1700 people have been murdered on farms in this country over the last 20 years, songs that encourage their slaughter are allowed by a ruling party, the African National Congress.
Even after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made the remarks about white South African farmers possibly being welcomed to Australia if their visas are fast tracked, the South African government denies that we have a rural disaster here.
This is the same party who disbanded the commandos, reserve military units made up of community members that safe guarded farming regions. To this day, nothing has replaced them.
What about our children that lose father after father because he tried his best to fight the threat off?
Our government denies the crisis, but statistics don’t lie, the photos don’t lie, the lasting wounded don’t lie. Every story that is told is one by a brave soul that only just survived.
How can it be that these people who survive and face every new day, do so with a government pretending that our circumstances are normal? In fact, the government in South Africa stopped publishing farm murder statistics in 2008 and we have been forced to start keeping our own records as civil society.
We are doing the best we can to live normal lives in an abnormal situation. South African farmers have a more dangerous job in this country than most police officials do — I would even describe it as one of South Africa’s most dangerous professions.
Our land has already started being “illegally” expropriated without compensation, yet some of the world believes a president who states that this will not become Zimbabwe. We are accused of stealing land that we have bought and developed over years.
I conclude with a crucial message. We have no other alternative but to survive, this is our country, our land, we have just the same rights as anyone else born here to stay in a free, safe and sustainable society.
Ian Cameron is a spokesman and head of community safety at AfriForum, a civil rights group based in Pretoria trying to draw attention the plight of farmers.