A Framework for Solving Farm Attacks?

The debate around farm attacks illustrates how politicising crime issues will do little more than delay finding solutions. With elections looming and political parties taking up the farmers’ cause, government’s hurry to dispel the notion that the attacks are politically motivated, has meant that several of the basic steps in solving crime have been overlooked.

The high media profile that has built up around farm attacks can be traced to the outspoken and unified demands for government action by the farmers themselves. The problem has been around for several years, but it was only when farmers insisted that the murders were politically motivated, that government really took notice. Indeed, while farmers might disagree, there are few other constituencies that have succeeded in mobilising ministerial level concern and national government summits around crime at such short notice.

The attention is nevertheless welcomed: available statistics indicate that the number of farm murders in the country has increased between January 1997 and September 1998 (Figure 1).



Figure 1 Total farm murders for South Africa From January 1997 to September 1998

Source: SAPS and National Operational Co-ordinating Committe (Nococ)

Although there is not enough data to accurately disaggregate the statistics, indications are that all areas are not equally affected. The highest number of murders were recorded in KwaZulu-Natal province over the past year and a half, followed in descending order by Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. If statistics for the first nine months of 1997 and 1998 are compared in each province, the only province in which farm murders have decreased since 1997 is the Free State (Figures 2 and 3).



Figure 2 Total number of farm murders per province for 1997 (Jan-Sept) and 1998 (Jan-Sept)

Source: SAPS & Nococ



Figure 3 Total numer of farm murders for the Free State from January 1997 to September 1998

Source: SAPS and Nococ

Those provinces where the number of murders has increased are Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (Figure 2 and 4), the Western Cape and Mpumalanga (Figure 2). Although most of these provinces include large rural areas, several of these increases (particularly in Gauteng) can be attributed to attacks on smallholdings. This raises an important question in the analysis of ‘farm’ violence.



Figure 4 Total number of farm murders in KwaZulu-Natal from January 1997 to September 1998

Source: SAPS and Nococ

Are smallholdings ‘farms’?

These statistics refer not only to incidents on farms, but also to those on smallholdings. It is only in 1998 that these two categories of data have been separated. (And it is unclear whether or not statistics for previous years would include attacks on smallholdings as well.) In the first five months of 1998, 35% of all 305 attacks that were recorded by police occurred on smallholdings, accounting for 41,5% of the 53 people killed. Violence on smallholdings thus makes up a significant proportion of what have become known as ‘farm’ attacks.

The distinction between smallholdings and farms is important, both in terms of how the problem is analysed, and how solutions are applied. For example, when comparing the risk for people living on farms proper, to that of the general population, attacks on smallholdings should be excluded. Thus, of the 4,5 million farmers, farm workers and their dependants in South Africa, the 31 murders occurring on farms between January and May 1998 represents a murder rate of 0,6 people per 100000 of the population.

Although comparable five month murder figures are not yet available for the whole country, the murder rate for the average South African for the first three months of this year was already higher, at 13 per 100000. It is thus not the case that people living on farms are more likely to be murdered than South Africans generally. (Of course, if only the farmer and his or her family are taken into account, the picture will change — but since farm workers have also been victims of several attacks, this would be inaccurate.)

The rural perspective

Including the farmworkers and their families in the analysis raises the second question regarding the approach to understanding farm attacks. These incidents, in terms of both causes and solutions, need to be conceptualised within their rural setting, rather than simply as ‘farms’ in isolation from the broader socio-economic, crime and policing context. Several points are worth considering:

Farmworkers are generally regarded as among the most oppressed and underdeveloped labour groups in the country. This is likely to play a role in the occurrence of crime on farms. Safety strategies will thus have to consider issues of labour relations on farms.



The rural areas of South Africa are too vast, and the crime problem in the urban centres too great, to expect the police and military to offer comprehensive direct protection on farms.



Like their urban counterparts, South Africans in rural areas will have to take much more responsibility for their own safety. This in no way absolves the state of its responsibility in reducing crime: worldwide the trend is for partnerships between the police and communities to successfully reduce crime in their areas.

The debate about whether or not farm attacks are politically motivated has clouded many of the real issues. This debate has been allowed to continue for too long by the absence of accurate data on the extent and nature of attacks, as well as sound analysis of crime patterns. The problem is more likely to relate to broader rural crime and rural policing/safety issues:

Farms are part of the broader South African rural context: nearly half the country’s population are rural and 73% of the country’s poor live in rural areas. And although the proportion of people in rural areas is decreasing relative to urban areas, the number of actual residents in rural areas is increasing.



The isolation of farms makes their inhabitants vulnerable to crime.



Crime prevention in rural areas cannot be compared to that in urban areas, given the vast expanses that have to be policed, and the limited manpower. The police in rural areas are often faced with resource and skills constraints, particularly regarding detection. These need to be addressed to ensure long term safety, rather than relying on quick-fix interventions in selected ‘hot spots’, which, once the police withdraw, often leave communities as vulnerable as when they were sent to the area.



Attacks on farms should be considered within the context of crime in these areas more generally. The database that the police and military are currently using reflects only violent crimes which are committed in the course of a robbery. Thefts, stock theft and other crimes happening in and around the farms, and among farmworkers should also be analysed.

Solutions to farm attacks need to be sought in the same way as other crimes. The problem needs to be more clearly defined, and attention given not only to the alleged perpetrators — as has been the case thus far — but also to how potential victims can prevent attacks, and how the environment in which violence occurs can be altered.

Antoinette Louw,
Institute for Security Studies