While the festive season is often a time of relaxation after a demanding year, farmers and workers are cautioned to not let their guard down while waiting on government to implement its rural safety plan.
Safety risk analyst for Free State Agriculture Dr Jane Buys said the farmers who are most at risk are those who will be planting and leaving machinery like harvesters, planters, and tractors on the field.
According to her, farmers are also at risk for other crimes and vandalism, including the theft of diesel and batteries and malicious damage to property.
“It is imperative that farmers remain vigilant for any criminal activity. Free State Agriculture also encourage farmers to participate in white or blue light patrols with the police in their area.
“Police also tend to increase their operations over the festive period. We have seen where there is high police visibility by both police and farming communities, there is limited or no crimes being reported,” she explained.
Alarming crime statistics
Meanwhile, police minister Bheki Cele recently released the crime statistics for the second quarter of the current financial year. He vowed that the police force will increase with 10 000 more officers in blue.
“More boots will be on the ground and escalated crime prevention and crime combating operations will be a daily occurrence until the end of January 2023. The crime figures show that aggression and violence are at worrying levels in South Africa,” Cele said.
Stock theft has increased by 679 cases from July to September this year compared to the same period last year. There was an increase of 10.2% from 6 663 to 7 342 cases reported.
The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga are the provinces with the most reported cases of stock theft.
How to protect yourself
Buys believed it was important for farmers to be on high alert as livestock theft and farm attacks remain high over the festive period.
She encouraged farmers to continuously enforce radio communication with their neighbours or representatives of farmer safety associations.
“Farming communities should equip and enable themselves with the necessary training as how to react when they are being attacked or threatened,” she added.
A anti-farm attack activist from the Free State, Petrus Sitho, said farmers must shoot to kill to protect themselves as the government was dragging its feet to implement the national rural safety strategy. He described this as the cornerstone of plans to reduce farm attacks.
“I am part of the team that was tasked with coming with a rural safety strategy following the safety summit in the Free State months ago. We were supposed to meet in mid-November, but the meeting has been postponed by government.
“This goes to show that they are not serious about the safety of farmers and farmworkers in the country. Farmers are left with no other choice but to react in a way that will ensure that they feel protected when they are attacked.”
Sitho called on the ministers of police, agriculture, land reform and rural development and justice, as well as President Cyril Ramaphosa to join hands and tackle farm attacks that is threatening food security.
Agri SA director of rural safety Kobus Visser said it was important that Cele presented the interventions made by the task team as a matter of urgency.
He said some of the interventions put in place by the task team were aimed at addressing how farm attacks could be resolved, including increasing human and other police resources, especially in farming communities.
Visser also urge farmers to be involved in safety networks in their respective areas or to contract private companies to help keep them safe.
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