Ramaphosa has moral obligation to take a stance on farm murders
President Cyril Ramaphosa is under a moral obligation to take a strong public stance against farm murders, particularly due to the fact that he denied the existence of the crisis on an international platform earlier. This is the reaction of AfriForum after Khusela Diko, Spokesperson to the president, yesterday told media that the president will specifically not air his views on farm murders, because it is the responsibility of the police.
Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO for AfriForum, says that the president’s excuse does not make sense at all. “The president has previously aired his views on farm murders. When he did this, he said that there are no farm murders in South Africa. Now that he is confronted with the numbers, his response is that it is not his place to air his views on it and that he would rather remain silent. This is insulting, to put it mildly.”
Roets referred to Ramaphosa’s visit to the USA in September 2018 and his comments on the 26th of this month, during a media interview with Bloomberg, that there are no farm murders and no land grabs in South Africa. AfriForum released its latest statistics yesterday for farm attacks and murders since the beginning of 2019 up to and including the end of May. AfriForum could verify 184 farm attacks and 20 farm murders in this period.
Statement issued by Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO, AfriForum, 5 June 2019
