FF Plus leader says over past six years 24% of attacks occurred in NWest, 21% in Gauteng and 15% in KZN

Government once again releases statistics on farm attacks and murders after continued pressure from FF Plus

The FF welcomes the decision by the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and the Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, to once again release statistics on farm attacks and murders after eleven years of silence on the matter.

The last time that these statistics were disclosed was in 2007. The FF Plus, however, continued to request the figures by way of parliamentary questions and answers have finally been provided (see data extracted from answer below - PW).

In essence, the party asked for the number of attacks and murders that took place in every province since 2012 to be disclosed. From the answer it can be gleaned that attacks increased (561 attacks) over the last year (2017/18), while there was a decrease in attacks over the previous three years.

The figures show that over the last six years since 2012, there were 3059 attacks altogether (on average, that is 509,8 per year) in which 338 people were killed (on average, that is 56,3 per year).

During this time, most of the attacks took place in the North West province (722 attacks) and Gauteng (644 attacks). The province with the highest number of murders during this time, however, is Gauteng (69 murders) and then the North West and KwaZulu-Natal (61 murders each).

If these figures are compared to other available sources, then they seem to be fairly reliable. It is regrettable that these statistics were swept under the rug under the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.

Without the necessary statistics on crime, one is left groping in the dark and then it is not possible to take meaningful action and implement preventative measures.

In the interim, the FF Plus will continue with its action plan to inform the international community of the exploits and particularly the cruelty of murders in South Africa by actively liaising with, amongst others, the European Parliament and governments as well as the United Nations (UN) through the FF Plus’s UNPO membership.

In this regard, statistics on farm attacks and murders released by the government will surely carry more weight than the statistics of other institutions.

Incidents:

2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 Total % of total Gauteng 88 128 119 50 107 152 644 21% KZN 104 82 78 80 77 42 463 15% Mpumalanga 24 68 30 12 47 37 218 7% ECape 11 19 11 9 36 54 140 5% WCape 142 30 37 16 19 45 289 9% NCape 8 4 3 2 4 14 35 1% NWest 137 108 114 165 104 94 722 24% Limpopo 10 41 46 67 24 58 246 8% FState 43 37 52 45 60 65 302 10% 567 517 490 446 478 561 3059 100%

Murders:

2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 Total % of total Gauteng 14 11 10 11 14 9 69 20% KZN 9 16 9 9 13 5 61 18% Mpumalanga 2 6 4 1 9 3 25 7% ECape 2 9 1 4 8 2 26 8% WCape 8 3 4 5 1 1 22 7% NCape 1 1 0 1 1 1 5 1% NWest 17 7 11 6 8 12 61 18% Limpopo 1 2 11 7 6 7 34 10% FState 5 2 10 5 6 7 35 10% 59 57 60 49 66 47 338 100%

Statement issued by Dr. Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 5 May 2018