A farmer looks at his brand new imported tractors.
Given the ANC government’s often ambiguous stance on farmers – especially white ones who supposedly cling to land – it was refreshing to hear an official of the organisation condemning attacks on farmers and their workers.
ANC Western Cape secretary Faizel Jacobs made the comments in the wake of the brutal killing of a farm worker during a farm robbery in the Philippi area of the province over the weekend.
Jacobs said: “Every life lost in these criminal attacks is regretted and mourned. We call on all our people to stand together to defeat these criminals.”
He also made the accurate observation that every assault on the farming community was an assault on the country, on blacks and whites, and on food security.
It may suit some to downplay the issue of violence on, and against, farmers and their workers … possibly for the reasons of vengeance or that the phenomenon might speed the process of land redistribution.
But if the authorities do not get to grips with this particularly insidious form of crime, we will all start to feel the effects in a few years time when our bellies will grumble from hunger or our wallets from the high cost of imported food.
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