IN KIMBERLEY, where the diamonds are dug, Rikkie Alsemgeest had a funny feeling on the afternoon of January 23. Normally she stays at her own home in town on weeknights and only overnights on the farm of her 86-year-old partner, Piet Els, on weekends.

Something told her to stay with Piet that Tuesday night.

At first, they first thought the noises were the farm cats. Then four black men wearing hoodies and holding torches broke through to their bedroom. Rikkie is 67. Her pyjama pants were stripped from her and she was digitally raped as Piet was belted with an iron bar.

Unlike many white farmers, Piet hadn’t installed electric fences and guard dogs on his 400ha beef farm.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Should Australia take white South African farmers as refugees?

Silent slaughter - Farm attacks in South Africa Silent slaughter - Farm attacks in South Africa

He’d been a friend of Nelson Mandela and, as a wealthy man, was known as someone black people could ring for help. He thought reputation was his protection.

But there is little defence for white South African farmers, rich or poor.

media_camera A battered and bruised Piet Els after being attacked on his farm.

They are being targeted in ruthless opportunistic crimes and what appears to be an orchestrated terror campaign — so much so that some of their families in Australia believe they should be treated as refugees.

The violence that accompanies farm attacks — which hit a record 400-plus last year, with one or two farmers killed every week — is so abnormally cruel that many whites feel certain they are being sent a message to leave the land.

media_camera Kimberley businesswoman Rikkie Alsemgeest.

Holes drilled through the feet of elderly women. People burned alive. Women raped and bashed. Men shot dead in front of their wives and children. Rikkie and Piet were both burned with a household iron.

“I said, ‘I will show you where the safe is,’” said Rikkie.

“They hit me on the side of my head. We went to the room where the study is. Piet’s eye was all swollen. He was so confused and couldn’t get the code in. Every time he put in a number they hit him again. They hit me across my legs with a steel pipe, and across my chest.

“Then they tied me to a chair and came with a steam iron they found in the kitchen and burned me here (on her inside knee). But Piet they burned on his back in three or four places and burned on the back of his leg. They stripped off his skin.”

When we spoke to Rikkie, the attack was fresh and Piet was in ICU. Like others, she talked about the event like it had happened to someone else. She was strong, but traumatised.

Piet was so confused by raining blows he couldn’t remember the safe’s combination. Rikkie didn’t know the numbers and told the men where they could find a grinder.

“And they did. I thought Piet was dead because he was lying on the floor. They put a cloth in my face and tied me to the chair. They stripped off my top. I was naked. They put some tape over my face and eyes. They took my breast and twisted, humiliating me, not saying a word.”

They cut open the safe and took jewellery. Several of the men were caught and are being prosecuted. But in most farm attacks, no one is arrested.

Rikkie is a sophisticated woman who understands the wrongs of Apartheid. Both she and her partner wanted to be part of Mandela’s dream. Even now, she does not want to leave.

“This will not run me out of Kimberley,” she says. “Why not? Because then they win. A lot of South Africans went to Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It hasn’t helped this country.”