Over the last 72 hours, South Africa has faced six farm attacks. People have been killed, stabbed, shot and even beaten with a spanner. The DA is now once again calling for action.

On Monday, a woman was murdered on a farm in Still Bay, Western Cape, a farmer was shot dead near King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape, a victim was beaten with a wheel spanner in Gauteng (and is now in hospital), a security guard was stabbed on a farm in Limpopo and a 63-year-old hacked in Addo, Eastern Cape (also in hospital).

“Attacks on anyone who lives on or visits a farm – have increased once again. The attacks are carefully planned, and without exception include violence, and frequently torture of the most horrific kinds. Even children are mercilessly targeted,” said DA MP Diane Kohler Barnard.

The party’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Police has also called out SAPS for not doing enough to combat the attacks.

“Farmers feed our nation and it is clear that the South African Police Service (SAPS) Rural Safety Strategy is a dismal failure. Police today rely heavily on private helicopters or fixed wings to get them to the site of the attacks. Yet the SAPS has an R86-billion budget.”

The DA argues that the police stations in the most hard-hit rural areas are under-staffed and under-resourced.

The party wants the reintroduction of specialised units in the SAPS. This would include specific units to tackle rural safety. In the 2016/17 financial year alone, South Africa experienced 52 murders per day.

Kohler Barnard and the DA believe that the units would play a key role in ending the currently unabated farm attacks.

“The DA calls on Cele to urgently prioritise the introduction of specialised units, including specifically a well-resourced and highly trained national rural safety unit, and we demand that he takes a strong line against the ongoing and criminal attacks on our farming communities. No one in South Africa should fear torture, rape and death.”

Last month, DA Free State leader, Patricia Kopane, also called for specialised rural safety units.