Murders usher in a dark festive season for farmers

14 December 2018

Three farm murders in the past week – including a couple from Bonnievale in the Western Cape – and nearly 20 farm attacks just over the last month alone set the alarm bells ringing as it could very well be the start of a dark festive season for farmers in South Africa.

As regards the incident in the Western Cape, the couple Piet and Elmien Steyn, both in their seventies, were presumably shot and killed with a shotgun on their farm Zandfontein. Their bodies were discovered on Thursday. What exactly transpired is still unknown.

The murder of the Steyn couple is a disturbing continuation of a wave of farm murders that spilled over to the Western Cape earlier this year. Various murders and farm attacks were reported in the Western Cape this year while previously, such incidences were unheard of in the province.

In another incident, the sixty-year-old Mr Johan Kruger was murdered on his farm in the Makoppa’s Nest region near Alldays in Limpopo after robbers demanded cash and the pin numbers of their bank cards. His spouse, Mrs Fiona Kruger, was able to flee the scene. She sustained no bodily injuries.

According to statistics released by Afriforum, there have been 411 farm attacks and 50 murders this year. These figures could increase drastically over the festive season.

Murders like these inadvertently makes one think of the malicious statements made by the BLF leader, Andile Mngxitama, and the extremely disappointing way in which action was taken against him after he called on BLF supporters to murder white people.

In South Africa, people are sent to prison for crimen injuria and it would be a terrible example of double standards of Mngxitama, who incited people to commit murder, is not punished accordingly.

Issued by Corné Mulder, FF Plus Chief Whip and leader in the Western Cape, 14 December 2018