Farm Attacks, Murders to Be Debated in Parliament

Jacob Zuma

Parliament is expected to hold a debate on farm attacks and murders, the FF Plus said on Wednesday.

National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete had reversed her recent decision not to allow a debate on the matter, FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said. The debate, to be held next Tuesday, followed discussions with Mbete last week.

"The FF Plus welcomes that the ANC government has, after thousands of murders and attacks, eventually acknowledged that this issue is of great importance which should be debated."

Groenewald said they had told Mbete that the attacks didn't only affect whites, but had serious consequences for food security, economic development, and the stability of the labour market.

He claimed that 133 farmers out of every 100 000 in the population were murdered, and that there had been an increase in farm attacks in February.

Confirmed figures on farm attacks are hard to come by. Rights group AfriForum gathered statistics based on news reports and accounts forwarded to its research desk.

In a previous attempt at establishing a fuller picture of attacks, an AfriForum researcher explained that, because updated crime statistics were not available, they relied on newspaper reports for their statistics. 

Other victims, such as labourers assaulted to gain access to a farm, were often overlooked in reports and so were not accounted for in their research."The murders and attacks are a tragedy," Groenewald said.

"The FF Plus, therefore, welcomes this historical debate. It is of the greatest importance that the public of South Africa knows what political parties do about issues that affect everybody in the country."