That’s the opinion of the South African government’s representation at the United Nation’s Forum on Minority Issues in Genève in reaction to minority representative grouping AfriForum who has asked that farm murders in South Africa be prioritised as a crime category. The SA government says in their submission the ANC led government will not be cohered into “radicalising the crime of murder in an attempt to protect minority group interests”
AfriForum’s Deputy CEO, Ernst Roets, launched an attack on these government inputs saying it a declaration that those who ask that farm murders be prioritised, do so because they have racist agendas and because they are Apartheid sympathisers.
Roets says the South African government’s remark were offensive to minority communities as well as an attack on the humanity of farm murder victims. He points out that this represents inconsistent actions by the government.
“The government is quick to argue that it does not make sense to prioritise farm murders, as these form part of a broader crime category. Yet it is easy for the South African government to prioritise rhino poaching. It is easy for the South African government to deploy more police officers to black townships when a crime crisis breaks out – and we support that. It is easy for the South African government to draw up a counter-strategy when police officers are murdered in disproportionate numbers, he says.
Roots also says that it is twice as dangerous in South Africa to be a farmer than being a police officer. “But when farm murders are discussed, the reaction suddenly is that it makes no sense to prioritise it,” Roets said.
The report that AfriForum submitted to the UN contains a number of case studies of incidents where the police and the criminal justice system have failed victims whose loved ones were killed in farm attacks.
