Latest DA resolution a ploy to appease farmers – analyst

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has begun to take flak following its weekend congress declaration that farm murders were hate crime, with independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga describing the latest party resolution as a ploy to appease farmers.

Twitter was yesterday also abuzz with tweets challenging figures mentioned by reelected DA federal council chair Helen Zille in support of the hate crime position adopted by the 2,000 delegates attending the party congress, which saw former chief whip John Steenhuisen being elected leader.

Maintaining that the DA wanted to appease farmers, Mathekga said: “If we take into consideration that crime is generally a matter of great concern in South Africa, especially when looking at incidents against women, children and every citizen – we are all under siege.

“But in seeing how the DA has framed its resolution at its weekend congress, it seeks to focus on crime in a way that seeks to appease a distinct group – the farmers, who are also part of society.

“While we should be worried about farm murders, to declare it a hate crime, the DA has used this scourge to appease this group – mostly made up of white farmers. If this is the way to approach crime-fighting, the DA is seemingly no longer concerned with anyone else, but are about protecting a distinct group.”

Following a proposal on farm murders, brought forward by MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, adopted as a congress resolution, the DA said it planned to push government to declare farm murders a hate crime with harsher sentences, if prosecutors proved the intent was hatred.

Asked by Radio 702 morning talk show host Bongani Bingwa, why the DA congress focused on farmers, Zille explained: “Police conviction rate has been pathetic in every category of crime.

“The bottom line is that farm murders are taking place out of all proportions to the number of farmers in South Africa. If you just do the maths, out of 40,000 farmers left in SA, feeding 57 million people and still having enough to export food to Southern Africa, which is an incredible role.

“If you look at your portion of farmers and the number of farm murders per year, you will find that farmers are 50 times more likely to be murdered than an ordinary South African.

“That is out of all proportions, their numbers are at risk. Now, more and more farmers are standing up if they can find a buyer, imparting their once-productive land to the state to lie in ruins. We will one day have no food in this country if we carry on like this.”

Challenging Zille’s assertion, Bingwa said: “Nobody will disagree with you that food security is important. Certainly, no South African should be killed and not quite as brutally as we see happening on farms. But is it not also true that many of these farm murders involve the farmers and the workers who stay on those farms.

“Comparatively speaking, farm murders are a small fraction – on average 57 people are killed in South Africa every day, there were 21 000 murders in the country for 2019 to 2020 – only 46 were farm murders.”

Responded Zille: “Just do the maths. We are 57 million South Africans, which means an average South African has a 0.03% of the chance of getting murdered.”

Commenting on Twitter, Johannesburg litigation attorney Sharne Zoe, said: “The DA said on 2 August, 2020, that farmers are four times more likely to be murdered. It is difficult to be consistent when you are lying.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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