Committee established to ensure safer farming & rural communities

A fifteen-member national working committee has been established to ensure safer rural and farming communities in South Africa.

The committee was established during a two-day Rural Safety Summit hosted by the South African Police Service (Saps) in the Free State from 27 – 28 June 2022.

The Summit brought together stakeholders in the farming community including agricultural unions, traditional leaders, farmers, farm workers, farm dwellers, and farm worker’s associations including activists against farm murders.

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Held under the theme “finding sustainable solutions towards safety in our rural communities” the gathering created a platform for both the farming community, Saps, other government departments and stakeholders to come together to monitor progress in implementing the National Rural Safety Strategy (NRSS).

The strategy which was launched in 2019 seeks to address challenges in rural and farming communities.

 Amongst the challenges identified are farm attacks and killings, stock theft, undocumented farm workers, illegal land invasions and evictions including the labour rights of farm workers and dwellers.

The National Commissioner of the Saps, General Fannie Masemola says it’s crucial for police to forge relations and partnerships with all stakeholders to ensure crime is dealt with swiftly in rural areas in line with the NRSS.

“As Saps, we aim to build effective capacity and capability in rural areas, ensure accessibility of policing and improve service delivery to rural communities, and improve policing infrastructure and resources in police stations in rural areas. Most importantly we must ensure community involvement and stakeholder collaboration.”

Minister of Police, Bheki Cele has given the newly elected committee seven days to develop an action plan that will be tabled before Cabinet.

“Let’s all come together to develop a working document that will be presented in the form of a memorandum to Cabinet.  This will ensure that all government departments and all stakeholders that have a role to play come on board to ensure that together we create safer rural and farming areas.”

Mzansi’s most recent crime stats revealed that, from January to March 2022, 78 murders occurred on agricultural land, farms, plots and smallholdings (333 for the full financial year).

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