Someone is murdered almost every week on a farm in South Africa.

These statistics form part of AfriForum’s latest annual report on farm attacks and murders that was released in Centurion on Monday morning. According to it, 49 people were murdered on farms in 2023 (0,94 murders per week). These murders were committed during 296 farm attacks (5,7 per week).

Jacques Broodryk, Chief Spokesperson of Afriforum’s Community Safety, says the police should have released the crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2023/24 financial year last week, but clearly did not see a chance to do so on the eve of the election.

These statistics do show a slight decrease from previous years. There were 43 fewer attacks, from 339 in 2022 to 296 in 2023.

However, the civil rights organisation has criticised the double standards in the police approach to preventing and investigating certain crimes and argues that no murder should be considered less important.

“When murders have a unique approach, as is the case with farm attacks and farm murders, a specialised approach should be followed,” broodryk says. He says crime and violent crime in particular has become a pandemic in South Africa that has seemingly spiralled out of control, while the South African government and top leadership of the police have done little to combat this scourge. “No murder is more important than another, but equally no murder is also less important than another. When it comes to farm murders, however, that is exactly how the South African government sees them,” he emphasises.

Johan Nortjé, Researcher at the AfriForum Institute says most farm and holding attacks took place in Gauteng last year, with 83 attacks and 11 murders. Of these, 63% were on farms and 37% on holdings.

Broodryk says when it comes to some serious and organised crimes, such as heists, illegal mining and politically motivated murders, special ministerial task teams are set up for prevention and investigative purposes. Then additional resources are given to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and a specific approach is followed by the police and other role-players.

He says although a specialised approach to unique crimes should be welcomed, questions exist as to why the South African government refuses to follow the same approach with farm attacks and farm murders. “In certain cases the incidence of farm attacks and murders is much higher, more violent and requires a much more specialised approach than some of the crimes that are prioritised.”

Broodryk says 40 political assassinations and 41 murders related to illegal mining activities were committed last year, compared to the 49 farm murders according to AfriForum’s database.

“The incidence of 234 heists in 2023 has resulted in a specialised action by authorities. In contrast, the 296 farm attacks in the same year are seemingly ignored.”

“The value that the ANC government places on human lives is clearly not judged equally. These double standards are shocking,” broodryk adds.

He says AfriForum does not ask for special treatment of farm murders and attacks, but simply for equal treatment.

Dr Theo de Jager, board chairperson of Saai and a farmer from Limpopo, says the drop in farm murders and attacks is welcomed, but believes that this did not happen because of a decrease in criminality on farm areas, but because farm and neighbourhood watches became more effective. “Ordinary farmers and residents patrol their areas in the evenings, with the support of AfriForum’s more than 170 safety structures and more than 10 000 trained volunteers countrywide. These structures repeatedly succeed in warding off farm attacks and apprehending criminals.”

This is how cases and victims look like in 2023

AfriForum’s community safety division started a database in 2019 to keep records of farm attacks and murders.

The data shows that the majority of farm attacks (85) were recorded between July and September, with 34 attacks in August alone.

Most murders, 12, occurred in June.

The data further shows that 81% of farm murder victims are men and 19% are women. However, two-thirds of the victims were over the age of 60.

The youngest victim was a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the chest from the front. The oldest victim was an 87-year-old man who was overrun by five gunmen on his farm with his son.

According to the report, most of these murders are characterised by unusually high levels of brutality. The majority of victims, 25, were shot dead, 13 died from assault, either struck with an object or stabbed with a sharp object.

“In some cases, the victims were assaulted so badly that they died as a result of assault. Like the case of a farmer in the Eastern Cape who was beaten and tortured with a burning object,” the report said.