#StopTheWarOnOurFood: DA petitions the President to act on rural safety now!

19 June 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched an online petition calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act on rural safety.

There has been an unprecedented number of attacks on people living on farms, rural areas and small holdings.

A total number of 184 farm attacks and 20 farm murders have occurred in the country since the start of the year.

Gauteng has recorded the highest number of attacks of 51 incidents.

The increased attacks on our farming communities is as a result of a lack of political leadership by SAPS.

Farming plays a major role in creating employment opportunities, food security and contribution to the GDP.

The government’s Rural Safety Strategy has been a dismal failure because police stations in the most hard-hit rural areas are understaffed and under-resourced. SAPS is increasingly unable to protect rural communities.

We urgently need the following interventions:

- Rural Safety Units must be reintroduced and properly resourced;

- Innovation in new technology such as surveillance drones, ShotSpotter and geofencing must be explored as a matter of urgency;

- SAPS must keep accurate statistics so that the success or failure of interventions can be measured;

- The Reservist Programme in farm areas must be properly implemented with a concerted effort to recruit and train farmers, farm workers and farm dwellers;

The DA-led Western Cape government is in a process of setting up an inter-ministerial rural safety committee to tackle issues of farm attacks and rural safety.  We believe that if the national government replicates what the DA Western Cape government is doing an immediate solution to curb these attacks can be found.

We call on all South Africans to help stop farm attacks by signing the below petition to be handed over to the President.

An attack on the farms is an attack on food security #StopTheWarOnOurFood.

Please follow this link to view and sign the petition:

https://petitions.da.org.za/p/ruralcommunities

Issued by Ina Cilliers, DA Spokesperson for Economic Development, 19 June 2019