DOCUMENTS

SAPS releases farm attack/murder stats by province - Pieter Groenewald

FF Plus leader says over past six years 24% of attacks occurred in NWest, 21% in Gauteng and 15% in KZN

Government once again releases statistics on farm attacks and murders after continued pressure from FF Plus

The FF welcomes the decision by the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and the Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, to once again release statistics on farm attacks and murders after eleven years of silence on the matter.

The last time that these statistics were disclosed was in 2007. The FF Plus, however, continued to request the figures by way of parliamentary questions and answers have finally been provided (see data extracted from answer below - PW).

In essence, the party asked for the number of attacks and murders that took place in every province since 2012 to be disclosed. From the answer it can be gleaned that attacks increased (561 attacks) over the last year (2017/18), while there was a decrease in attacks over the previous three years.

The figures show that over the last six years since 2012, there were 3059 attacks altogether (on average, that is 509,8 per year) in which 338 people were killed (on average, that is 56,3 per year).

During this time, most of the attacks took place in the North West province (722 attacks) and Gauteng (644 attacks). The province with the highest number of murders during this time, however, is Gauteng (69 murders) and then the North West and KwaZulu-Natal (61 murders each).

If these figures are compared to other available sources, then they seem to be fairly reliable. It is regrettable that these statistics were swept under the rug under the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.

Without the necessary statistics on crime, one is left groping in the dark and then it is not possible to take meaningful action and implement preventative measures.

In the interim, the FF Plus will continue with its action plan to inform the international community of the exploits and particularly the cruelty of murders in South Africa by actively liaising with, amongst others, the European Parliament and governments as well as the United Nations (UN) through the FF Plus’s UNPO membership.

In this regard, statistics on farm attacks and murders released by the government will surely carry more weight than the statistics of other institutions.

Incidents:

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

Total

% of total

Gauteng

88

128

119

50

107

152

644

21%

KZN

104

82

78

80

77

42

463

15%

Mpumalanga

24

68

30

12

47

37

218

7%

ECape

11

19

11

9

36

54

140

5%

WCape

142

30

37

16

19

45

289

9%

NCape

8

4

3

2

4

14

35

1%

NWest

137

108

114

165

104

94

722

24%

Limpopo

10

41

46

67

24

58

246

8%

FState

43

37

52

45

60

65

302

10%

567

517

490

446

478

561

3059

100%

Murders:

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

Total

% of total

Gauteng

14

11

10

11

14

9

69

20%

KZN

9

16

9

9

13

5

61

18%

Mpumalanga

2

6

4

1

9

3

25

7%

ECape

2

9

1

4

8

2

26

8%

WCape

8

3

4

5

1

1

22

7%

NCape

1

1

0

1

1

1

5

1%

NWest

17

7

11

6

8

12

61

18%

Limpopo

1

2

11

7

6

7

34

10%

FState

5

2

10

5

6

7

35

10%

59

57

60

49

66

47

338

100%

Statement issued by Dr. Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 5 May 2018