Urban farmers in the economic heart of South Africa, Johannesburg, are facing significant challenges related to crime. These challenges have a detrimental impact on their ability to sustain their farming operations and contribute to food security in urban areas.
Nomusa Ncube is a rooftop farmer in Alexandra, an area known for its unsafe streets and high crime activity.
“We struggle with theft, people climbing over our fences and stealing crops, and people breaking into our containers and stealing our tools,” she said.
“It happens often. We were hardest hit when they broke into our container in the early hours of the morning and wiped us clean of our tools and workwear and seeds.”
High crime rate in Gauteng
Alexandra has experienced higher crime rates compared to some other areas in Johannesburg. Common crimes include theft, robbery, and property crime.
Ncube explained that she has tried installing razor fences around the property, but she has not been very successful. She believes that having a security guard on the premises would reduce criminal activity on the premises, or building a room to sleep in.
“In that way, thieves won’t be able to get in, because the main reason they enter the property is because there is nobody,” she said.
Presenting the first quarter crime statistics at the Gauteng legislature recently, Gauteng police commissioner Elias Mawela said Gauteng contributes 27.9% of the country’s overall crime statistics.
Murder and carjacking have decreased by 0.1% and 12.1% respectively while rape continues to be a thorn in the side of the police as it went up by a slight 1%.
Mawela said there are a number of slight improvements, however, in terms of percentage reduction, this might seem insignificant from the point of view of ordinary citizens.
“However, to us as law enforcers, any reduction is welcomed as it is an indication that fewer people were affected by these crimes which means we are slowly working towards reducing overall crime in this province.”
Going the extra mile
Meanwhile, Nkosingphile Mvubu, an urban farmer in Gugulethu in the Western Cape, said crime there is also a problem. Attacks on food gardens, however, are not that prevalent unless it is farm members who want to sabotage you or your farming project, Mvubu explained.
“Besides that, it is rare that a person would want to go steal some spinach and cabbage. But they can steal some farming tools and that is why you have to make sure tools are kept safe.”
“Aside from land, nothing has been taken from our farm. It was just another farmer enlarging their territory because they felt like we did not care about it or minded.”
Mvubu added that farming is quite costly on its own already, and having to improve the security of the farm makes matters worse, which is why he has only managed to keep a razor fence around the property. However, he said it wouldn’t necessarily keep a determined thief from entering.
“We need to keep each other accountable as local urban farmers and work together to safeguard our produce because most of the time it’s an inside job when there’s a break-in.”
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