But it was this week that their plight attracted the sympathy of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has tasked his department with investigating a special refugee intake of the South African minority group, who he told radio station 2GB were dealing with “persecution”. The move, and his comments have sparked fury from the South African government, who have demanded Australia retract the remarks which they said “offended” them. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The backlash followed coverage by News Corp outlets, which reported last weekend that there were calls by distraught relatives in Australia to have family in South Africa granted asylum, and claimed white South African farmers were killed every week. Calculating an accurate farm murder rate for South Africa is difficult, if not impossible, as fact-checking website Africa Check has illustrated. This week in response to the stories, the site reiterated on Twitter that the most updated figures showed 74 people – farmers, staff, family and guests – were killed on farms and small holdings in 2016/2017.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton wants to help white South African farmers come to Australia. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen There were 638 attacks documented. They said while there was “no evidence of a white genocide in South Africa and the farm murder rate is in dispute, [white] farmers are being killed in horrific ways”. According to the Africa Check website, there is no official “farm attack” or “farm murder” crime category. Offences, including murder, rape and assault are documented by police, who are then supposed to report the incidents on a separate database. According to Gareth Newham from African organisation Institute for Security Studies (ISS), it is probable that many statistics for farm attacks and murders gathered by South African police and others would not include all attacks or killings of non-farmers, says the website. “Until an accurate estimate of the number of people ‘residing on, working on or visiting farms and smallholdings’ is released, it will not be possible to calculate a farm murder rate,” he says.

Land has long been a sensitive issue in South Africa. But an overwhelming approval by the country’s legislators last month to change the constitution to allow its expropriation without compensation has many worried. Speaking to Fairfax Media on Friday though, Robin said while Dutton’s remarks were “good” as they put international pressure on South Africa, his offer to speed up humanitarian visas for white farmers was at this stage “too early” and a “bit alarmist”. “It’s very kind of Australia to offer that to farmers in this country, but I think at this point in time we just need to adopt an attitude of wait and see,” said the married father of three adult children. “I don’t think the situation is of such great alarm in the country at the moment to really start looking into doing that.” He said he believed at the moment that under new President Cyril Ramaphosa, “committees will be set up and things will be discussed in an amicable way, in a rational way”, and stressed that there had been an assurance by the leader that no productive land would be taken.

But it is the radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, with firebrand Julius Malema at the helm, who has called for supporters to invade land, which really terrifies him, more than the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Last year, after a court hearing involving people who kept taking a security fence along his farm down, a group of about 20 party members turned up on the property to confront Robin, alone at the time. “One came up to me and said to me something to the effect of 'you white people your days in this country are finished, the EFF is coming, Malema is coming'," recalled Robin, a staunch supporter of Afrikaans NGO AfriForum. The constant inaction of police, for instance in one particular case where 600 tonnes of sugar cane was burnt on his land in December, where he also grows avocados and timber, “frustrates the hell out of farmers”, too, he said. About 15 farmers in one zone of his district have been conducting regular 82km property patrols since September. The searches, which are being done most days and stepped up around Easter and Christmas, involve a network of zones.

While farmer friends have sought greener pastures and some relatives have relocated to the US, Robin said there were “huge implications” of leaving home. “I mean most farmers have got bank overdrafts and loans and bonds that have to be repaid. Who’s going to repay those before they go and resettle in Australia?” he said. “What would happen to these farmers when they’re put into non-productive farming?” He said that if South Africa’s land expropriation policy did go wrong, black people would also suffer. While Robin admitted he had “nightmares” about what could happen to his son now farming with him, “especially when I’m not around here one day”, the 33-year-old refused to leave.