AfriForum chastises South African government before the United Nations

AfriForum’s Deputy CEO, Ernst Roets, today launched a scathing attack on South Africa’s inputs at the United Nation’s (UN’s) Forum on Minority Issues in Genève, Switzerland. The South African government declared that those who ask that farm murders be prioritised, do so because they have racist agendas and because they are Apartheid sympathisers.

Roets said at the conference that the South African government’s remark were extremely offensive to minority communities as well as an attack on the humanity of farm murder victims.

He also pointed out the inconsistent actions of the South African government. “The Government is quick to argue that it does not make sense to prioritise farm murders, as these form part of a broader crime category.

“Yet it is easy for the South African government to prioritise rhino poaching. It is easy for the South African government to deploy more police officers to black townships when a crime crisis breaks out – and we support that. It is easy for the South African government to draw up a counter-strategy when police officers are murdered in disproportionate numbers.

“It is twice as dangerous in South Africa to be a farmer than being a police officer. But when farm murders are discussed, the reaction suddenly is that it makes no sense to prioritise it,” Roets said. 

The report that AfriForum submitted to the UN contains a number of case studies of incidents where the police and the criminal justice system have failed victims whose loved ones were killed in farm attacks.

A video of Roets’ speech at the conference:

The response from the SA Government representative:

Issued by AfriForum National Spokesperson Henk Maree, 25 November 2015