National month of protest against farm murders
The civil rights organisation AfriForum has declared November 2015 as a national month of protest against farm murders. Various actions will be launched during November that will focus on increasing international pressure on the South African Government to prioritise farm murders. AfriForum requests the public to show their support for this campaign by visiting the webpage www.stopthemurders.co.za or to SMS their names to 32534.
Ernst Roets, deputy CEO of AfriForum, explained that on 1 December 2015 it would be exactly five years since the gruesome murder of the Potgieter family on their farm close to Lindley in the Free State. Attie Potgieter (40) was stabbed 151 times with garden forks, pangas and other tools, while his wife Wilna (36) and their little daughter Willemien (2) had to look on. Willemien was then hit over the head with a sharp object, shot in the head and dumped in a box in the outbuilding. After Willemien had witnessed the murder of her husband and daughter, she was taken back to the farm house, hit over the head a number of times and then shot in the neck.
“Although Government had regretted the Potgieter murders in the media, it is quite evident that the police does not consider farm murders a priority at all,” Roets said. “Since then, hundreds of farmers have been killed on their farms, many in the most brutal way imaginable. If Government and the Department of Police simply laugh away the matter, we will make sure that they are embarrassed in the international arena for this.”
In the coming month, AfriForum will undertake the following actions: