The thread by the North West University academic Professor Elmien du Plessis on Twitter criticising the visit by AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel and Ernst Roets to the United States to mobilise support against farm murders and expropriation without compensation:
This is a thread on why I think this tour is misleading. In this thread, I Afriforum's statistics. It can be found here. Much of the information used (and double checked) in this thread can be found here.
In 2016/2017 there were 74 farm murders (this includes murders on small-holdings, which some people leave out of the calculation in other stats). At this rate it will take 432 years to kill all the commercial farmers (and families).
In the same year, 2639 women were murdered.
In Rwanda's genocide, between 800 000 - 1 000 000 people were killed in 100 days. That is 8 000 per day.
13 of the 74 farm murders involved torture. Any form of torture (or murder) is terrible. White people being tortured by black people en masse is not supported by the stats (and is also not my lived experience).
On these stats there was a marginal increase in farm murders after Malema sang “Kill the farmer kill the boer” in 2010. In fact, on TAU's statistics, from 2005 - 2009 there were a recorded 311 murders, while in 2010 - 2014 there were 285.
In 2003 a committee found that 2% of the attacks were politically motivated. The rural areas are vulnerable to crime due to isolation, the police not always being able to reach the area, and the believe that there are weapons and cash on the premises.
In 2011 SAPS started a National Rural Safety Strategy with Afriforum, also welcomed by AgriSA. It is investigating rural safety. It's failure to curb rural crime links with the general failure to curb crime nationally.
In 2016/2017 there were 19 000 murders in general, of which 74 were farm murders. Proportionally no other murders get as much coverage in the media (especially the Afrikaans and international media) as farm murders.
Most of the attackers are black? Demographics. Most of the victims of murder, are black (demographics). On the definitions, murder and torture perpetuated by white men do not fall under the #farmmurder statistics.
Personal stories/close proximity to incidents is scary and sad. People's lived experiences should not be overshadowed by data. It highlights our own vulnerability. But to solve the problem, it must be accurately diagnosed.
White people, especially Afrikaners, who try to speak out are often branded a traitor to their nation. White people are not a homogenous group. We differ, our opinions differ, out views on #whitegenocide differ.
We should gaurd against the dagners of a single story. So this is another take on rural crime & #farmmurders. It is important to have honest conversations about crime statistics. But we cannot only focus on the statistics that suits our isolated needs.
We should guard against comparing and ranking hurt and fears. Every person's emotions are real to them. It is their lived experience. We should hold that space for one another, acknowledge it. Then work together to find a solution.
Ernst Roets’ reply on Youtube:
