#StopTheWarOnOurFood: A petition to the President to act on rural safety
A total of 184 farm attacks and 20 farm murders have occurred in the country since the start of the year.
We have launched an online petition calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act on rural safety. There has been an unprecedented number of attacks on people living on farms, in rural areas and on smallholdings.
A total of 184 farm attacks and 20 farm murders have occurred in the country since the start of the year.
Gauteng has recorded the highest number of incidents – 51. The increased attacks on our farming communities are a result of a lack of leadership by the police.
Farming plays a major role in creating employment opportunities, food security and contributing to the GDP.
The government’s Rural Safety Strategy has been a dismal failure because police stations in the most hard-hit rural areas are understaffed and under-resourced. Police are increasingly unable to protect rural communities.
We urgently need the following interventions:
• Rural Safety Units must be reintroduced and properly resourced.
• Innovation in new technology such as surveillance drones, ShotSpotter and geofencing must be explored as a matter of urgency.
• Police must keep accurate statistics so that the success or failure of interventions can be measured.
• The Reservist Programme in farm areas must be properly implemented with a concerted effort to recruit and train farmers, farm workers and farm dwellers.
We call on all South Africans to help stop farm attacks by signing the petition below to be handed over to the President. An attack on the farms is an attack on food security #StopTheWarOnOurFood.
Follow the link to view and sign the petition [https://petitions.da.org.za/p/ruralcommunities]
Following the Herald’s front-page article with headline Farms at risk, the Randfontein Police have released a statement saying that the community must not panic about farm attacks and safety on farms.
Sergeant Carmen Hendricks, the Randfontein Police spokesperson, said that Randfontein is not facing any farm attacks at the moment.
“However, we want to ask the community to remain vigilant and to report any crime they might come across. The police and the Community Policing Forum (CPF) are working together to make sure the areas around the farms and smallholdings are safer.
“I recently had an interview with Gladys Lebepe, manager of Mphe Sereti Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Pelzvale, together with the sector manager, Captain Ben Beyleveld and Sergeant Wilson Molokomme. Gladys praised the CPF members for their great work in the community. CPF members are now escorting children from the centre to their homes because they used to get robbed of their food parcels while walking home. This is only one example of how the police and CPF are working together.”
