AfriForum says its international awareness campaign about the threat to property rights, and farm murders in SA will continue despite censure from DIRCO.

Minority rights lobby group, AfriForum, has dismissed comments by the Minister of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Lindiwe Sisulu, and says it is “continuing with its campaign to inform international governments and opinionmakers of the threat to property rights and farm murders in South Africa, in spite of criticism voiced against the organisation.”

In a statement issued by DIRCO on Wednesday, 14 March, Sisulu took aim at AfriForum, saying, “we call on organisations such as AfriForum that are spreading incorrect information sowing panic and fear to refrain from doing so.”

AfriForum’s Deputy CEO, Alana Bailey fired back at DIRCO, saying, “the facts distributed in this regard by AfriForum can be verified. It is a fact that during its national congress in December 2017, the ANC as the ruling party accepted expropriation without compensation as their policy. It is also a fact that on 27 February 2018, the South African Parliament voted with a majority in favour of embarking on a process to enable expropriation without compensation.”

“Additionally, it is a fact that South African farmers are under threat. When the statistics of the South African Police Service of the past 21 years are analysed, the conservative finding is that, on average, more than one farm attack occurs per day and more than one farm murder per week,” says Bailey.

Separately, Australia was the first country to seemingly respond to AfriForum’s campaign last week, with a spokesperson in the Australian Department of Home Affairs confirming to Political Analysis South Africa on Friday, 16 March that “As the Minister for Home Affairs [Peter Dutton] has previously stated, he has asked the Department to have a look at options and ways in which Australia can provide some assistance. The Department is monitoring the situation of minority groups in South Africa in the context of consideration for potential resettlement under the offshore Humanitarian Program.”

AfriForum says it will be intensifying its “petition to international investors and governments in which these will be requested to pressurise the South African government into abolishing its plan to expropriate property without compensation.”

The petition can be found here: https://www.afriforum.co.za/expropriation/