Ramaphosa still lying on farm murders – IRR

According to a statement released by Parliament last week, President Ramaphosa responded to a 2 November Parliamentary question on farm murders as follows: ‘My comment during an interview with Bloomberg on 26 September 2018 was in response to a tweet by US President Donald Trump which stated that there are “large scale killings of farmers” in South Africa. As I indicated in the interview, and as I continue to maintain, this statement is incorrect and misinformed.’

At the time of his comment to Bloomberg the IRR released a statement accusing the President of lying. Now we do so again.

IRR Project Manager Terence Corrigan says: ‘Because of the small number of farmers in South Africa, it is misleading to quote the number of farm murders and attacks. What must be done is to the quote the farm murder rate. This measures how many out of every 100 000 farmers are murdered annually.’

Corrigan adds: ‘As we have previously stated, and the Presidency is aware, the best data was produced by Dr James Myburgh of Politicsweb. According to Myburgh, the farm murder rate in 2016/17 was 52.8/100 000. This compared to the national murder rate of 34/100 000. The national murder rate in turn compared to the rate in Australia of less 1/100 000 and that in the United States of less than 4/100 000.’

The statement that there are ‘large scale killings of farmers’ in South Africa is therefore accurate and correct, Corrigan says.

‘A government that cannot accept that fact is a government that does not care about the safety and security of its people – who, like farmers, are being killed at an extraordinary level.’

Statement issued by Terence Corrigan, Project Manager, IRR, 8 November 2018