Farm murders down

2003-09-22 16:58

Cape Town - The annual report of the South African Police Service reports that nationally there has been an overall decrease in the number of acts of violence against the farming community from 1 069 to 903 and farm murders from 140 to 103 between 2001/2 and 2002/3.

The analysis per province indicates that between 2001/02 and the 2002/03 financial years the acts of violence against the farming community decreased in Gauteng by nearly 22% from 313 to 245 and in KwaZulu-Natal by 36% from 130 to 86.

In the Eastern Cape the violent incidents dropped by 52.6% from 76 to 36 between the 2001/2 and 2002/3 financial years and the total number of farm murders from 18 to just one - the lowest for murders for any province.

Farm murders dropped in Gauteng in this period from 34 to 24 and in KwaZulu-Natal from 24 to 19.

According to the report an analysis by the Crime Information Analysis Centre indicates that more than 90% of the acts of violence against the farming community are linked to robberies.

"Farmers, including people living on small-holdings, are probably targeted because the robbers are under the impression that farmers have large sums of money and firearms in their homesteads".

In addition, they are "easy targets" because they live "out of hearing" from one another and are older and more vulnerable than the average city dweller.

The police report noted that "unfortunately, the extremely brutal and senseless nature of other crimes committed during these robberies has created a persistent incorrect perception - almost a belief - among farmers that these are actually terror attacks aimed at driving them from their land."

A peak for farm murders was reached in 1998/99 - a total nationwide of 153 - compared with a low of 87 in 1997/98 while the peak for violent incidents was reached in 2001/02 of 1 069 incident which itself is up from a "low" of 490 in 1997/98.

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