Factually incorrect police statistics about farm murders raise serious questions

18 August 2023

The civil rights organisation AfriForum has blasted the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) statistics on farm murders for the second quarter of 2023.

The SAPS today released their statistics which indicated that only 14 people were murdered on farms during this time. AfriForum, however, released its statistics earlier this week which indicated that 24 people were murdered on farms during the same period.

“Whether this is incompetence or maliciousness by the South African Police Service, I cannot tell but it is extremely worrying that the SAPS cannot keep track of crime statistics. Every one of the murders that AfriForum has kept record of has been verified,” says Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s spokesperson for Community Safety.

According to AfriForum, there seems to be a deliberate effort by the South African government to downplay the seriousness of farm attacks.

“Firstly, we have a president who denied in front of international media that farm murders are taking place and now it seems we have a police service who are trying to downplay the issue by reporting factually incorrect data,” concluded Broodryk.

Issued by Jacques Broodrykm, Spokesperson: Community Safety, AfriForum, 18 August 2023