Are Afriforum lobbying in Australia with accurate stats?

Members of AfriForum are currently in Australia to garner support for their narrative regarding farm murders in SA. Their deputy CEO, Ernst Roets, has claimed in his book Kill the Boer that both the ANC and the media are complicit in these murders.

The crime stats delivered by police minister Bheki Cele this year recorded 62 farm murders in the 2017/2018 period, a number that they updated on September 11 after previously recording 47.

These stats were received with disbelief by those who support AfriForum’s narrative on the issue, while those who don’t pointed out that the stats, if accurate, discredit the notion that crime against farmers is targeted and disproportionate.

Some have even called the killings of farmers a “white genocide” although AfriForum themselves say they’ve never used the term.

READ MORE: Outrage surrounds book claiming top ANC officials ‘killed the boer’

There are conflicting reports as to whether AfriForum accepted the official crime stats on farm murders. The organisation produced their own stats, which a report in Africa Check has described as having “flaws“.

IOL reported that AfriForum has alleged that the official stats are misrepresenting the reality of the situation, going so far as to accuse police of “deliberately” covering up farm murders, and urging them to use the stats that the organisation itself provides them.

But the Daily Maverick quoted the organisation’s community safety head Ian Cameron, the same person quoted by the IOL article, as saying the latest crime stats look accurate.

Africa Check meanwhile said in their factsheet on farm murder stats that AfriForum stats “were collected by calendar year – not financial year – which makes comparisons with police statistics difficult”.

READ MORE: Sixty-two murders took place on farms last year

Earlier this year, AfriForum butted heads with agricultural industry association AgriSA after the latter organisation released a report in May saying that farm murders were at their lowest in 20 years. AfriForum rejected the report, which was based on police stats, media reports, and the organisation’s own research.

Australia may provide fertile ground for AfriForum’s attempts to show the world that farm murders are targeted. Several politicians in the country have expressed concern over the issue.

“Something like 400 white farmers have been murdered, brutally murdered, over the last 12 months,” said the country’s former prime minister Tony Abbott while being interviewed on a Sydney radio station in March. Where he got these inaccurate figures from is unclear.

More recently, home affairs minister Pete Dutton called for South African farmers to be granted refugee status in a statement that was slammed by the South African government.

READ MORE: Sisulu wants a retraction from Australia’s right-wing home affairs minister

Andrew Hastie, chair of the country’s parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, echoed Dutton’s calls, urging “persecuted” SA farmers to approach Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian program.

It was reported on Monday morning that AfriForum had what they called a “fruitful meeting” with Hastie, at which they gave him a copy of Kill the Boer.

But due to the many challenges of producing accurate farm murder stats, which Africa Check detailed in another report, titled Why calculating a farm murder rate in South Africa is near impossible, whether their stats on the issue are accurate or not appears to depend on who you ask.

AfriForum could not be reached for comment at the time of publication of this article.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.