Ramaphosa acknowledges request to set up inquiry into escalating farm murders and attacks in SA

A request to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the increasing prevalence of farm murders and attacks across South Africa has been acknowledged by President Cyril Ramaphosa. His office sent a reply to the DA’s request, confirming receipt of their letter. Over the past week, “heinous farm murders” occurred in both Limpopo and the Western Cape, some of which were incredibly brutal and included setting fire to victims while they were still alive.

Noko Masipa – DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture – says the Commission would allow for a thorough investigation into the underlying causes of these crimes and provide recommendations for comprehensive measures to safeguard our farming communities.

“Despite the frequency of farm attacks and murders, the DA, and indeed the whole of South Africa, remains perplexed that not much is being done to protect our farmers from criminal elements that are terrorizing our rural communities. Lawlessness has taken root on our farms and rural communities but nothing is being done to deal with the scourge decisively,” Masipa said in a statement on Friday.

“If we continue to pursue rural crime prevention as a separate activity from food production value chain, we will continue to expose our farmers and rural residents to criminal networks.”

During Police Minister Bheki Cele’s recent budget vote, he did not mention any progress made on rural safety or rural crime in his speech. The DA says that despite having recently developed a Rural Safety Strategy, there are already doubts on SAPS’ commitment to fight rural crime because of broken promises in the past.

The DA is hoping that President Ramaphosa will not “turn a blind eye as criminals terrorize our farming communities”.