Cele, these murders are no joke

I think most readers will agree that reasonable South Africans are gatvol of violence. Police Minister Bheki Cele this week reacted with shock and disgust after a group of farmers stormed the court in Senekal, demanding justice for the murder of the young farmer Brendin Horner.

I agree with you, Mr Cele. I’m shocked and disgusted by the farmer violence too. And by the brutality and regularity of farm murders, because I admire those who work the land, including farm workers. Political affiliation or skin colour or land ownership doesn’t make you a farmer. A love of the land does.

Deputy President David Mabuza understands the seriousness of the situation. But you, sir, don’t. Over the past years, you have romanticised farm attacks and downplayed the seriousness of it all. I’m shocked and disgusted.

Social media reports of police officers flinging shock grenades into a group of farmers or firing live rounds in a court building also disgust me. As does your refusal to prioritise farm murders. I’m shocked by claims that police officers are involved in farm attacks. Or reports of police refusing to investigate farm murders.

I’m also disgusted by violent protests in full view of your police members. And by the involvement of police officers in corruption.

In short, the police service under your command has a shocking track record. Yes, we’re a violent, thuggish bunch of rogues. But it’s your job to enforce the law and you’re not doing it very well.

Don’t tell us your police force is understaffed. South Africa had 193,000 police officers last year – 345 for every 100,000 citizens. Yet we had 21,000 murders in 2018 – 36.4 for every 100,000 citizens. Let’s compare that with other Brics countries: Brazil has 211 officers per 100,000 population, Russia has 515, India has 198 and China has 143. Yet there are only 27.4 murders per 100 000 in Brazil, 8.21 in Russia, 3.1 in India and 7.5 in China.

There wasn’t a lack of officers to terrorise smokers during lockdown and to extort bribes from shop owners. I’m no expert in the fine art of law enforcement, but maybe they can now do something about farm murders and gender-based violence and our overall culture of crime?

Dirk Lotriet.

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