Dear Pres. Ramaphosa- Your open letter earlier today to South Africans in general and farmers in particular refers.
Thank you for writing it. At least you got involved in a debate that is heating up to dangerous levels. You have put a position on the table, and there is some reasoning behind it. It is clear that the majority of farmers – and this is the part of our farming community who has all the potential to bring our country to a standstill – do not share your position or the assumptions on which it is based.
The explosive polarisation of our society was ignited by yet another farm murder. Farmers, their sympathisers and friends are increasingly taking to the streets in protest against this horrible phenomenon, which has been denied and neglected – even fuelled – by your government. From all corners of the country they go to pay their respect and share in the pain of the victims and their loved ones. But they also go to express their disappointment with the poisonous environment that the ANC created and in which this phenomenon thrives. Their anger and frustration have reached boiling point, as was evident in Senekal last week. They go to demand that we bring an end to farm attacks (on average one every second day) and the gruesome murders (on average one every fifth day).
The EFF and factions within the ANC – like your Youth League – threaten to confront them in favour of farm murders. Your Youth League was quoted yesterday on the front page of the Sunday Independent, threatening war on farmers, who are blamed for the deaths of Solomon Mahlangu and Chris Hani. We have yet to hear your reaction to that, or from any other ANC leader.
You compare farm murders to the murders of Mogamad Cloete, Tawqeer Essop and André Bennett, three young men who were shot dead in the same week in a car in Delft in the Western Cape. It’s equally tragic, yes; but that is where the comparison ends.
In South Africa, farm attacks and especially farm murders are not the same as the other run-away statistics. There are three aspects in particular that distinguish farm murders from the rest.
First: Nobody is publicly asking for township or gang murders to be committed. There is no populist incitement to commit urban murders. There is no deliberate creation of a political climate that encourages it, as is in the case with farm murders. Farm murders followed on the ANC, its leaders and especially its Youth League singing “Umshini wam” (bring me my machine gun) and “Kill the farmer, kill the boer”, which the EFF has since inherited. Have you seen all the tweets and Facebook posts of machine guns and machetes, referring to the expected showdown in Senekal?
More importantly: Has your government done as much as raising a finger to do something about this? Quite the opposite. Just listen again to Minister Bheki Cele’s tantrum at the murder scene of the Rafferty couple in Normandien a fortnight ago, when he warned farmers that they should not cry when they get hurt in reply to a simple question on how they should respond to cattle being driven onto their farms to destroy their crops.
The source of the mistrust that you refer to is right there in your cabinet!
Second: Robberies and urban murders are not committed with the same level of brutal torture. Children are not forced to watch while their mothers are raped; their eyes are not gouged out; and grandmothers are not mutilated by steel drills through their knees. On 4 June 2019 AfriForum pointed out with absolutely shocking figures that in almost half of the incidents of this inhuman violence nothing had even been stolen. This is murder for the joy of it.
Third: After township murders follows no thunderous applause, especially on social media. Hundreds of radical Twitter accounts, with or without pseudonyms, welcome every report of yet another gruesome torture or murder scene and call for more of it, without any consequence. Law enforcers apparently lack the intention, ability or will to do anything about it.
No, there is no way that you can convince us or the world that farm murders are just mere extensions of a general ethos of violence and murder that are engulfing our country.
What can be done?
First, you and the ANC must recognise the problem. If not, any solution is impossible. It is unlikely to happen by itself. Social, political and particularly foreign pressure must be used to get the ANC to comply.
Second, you must intervene. You must set up an urgent discussion with more than just the agricultural structures who sing your praises and support your views on farm attacks. You must also engage with networks and civil rights movements such as ourselves in Saai, AfriForum, the Solidarity Movement and Institute of Race Relations, who speak out on behalf of farmers and who express their views, frustrations and anger.
You must defuse the situation now, while it is still possible. Do this before it escalates further!
I am sure that you must have noticed that the tide of international opinion has turned. More foreign newspapers and television stations now report on farm murders, and many are already questioning your statement at the UN’s General Assembly in 2018 in New York that farmers are not being murdered.
What is needed now is action. A specialist unit must be established to take pre-emptive action through intelligence linking. It is unforgiveable that no progress has been made in 15 years in terms of the SAPS’s commitment after the dissolution of the commandos, namely to establish a reservist force.
A small but significant step would be to stop disarming farmers who want to utilise the amnesty for the renewal of licenses – most who have missed deadlines because of poor service delivery in rural police stations. This leaves them vulnerable in the worst time and under the worst conditions ever. There is no logical reason for this. At least such a decision will show some sensitivity to the voice of reason and sense of comprehension from your side – and you need it.
I often wish that you and your colleagues, especially your ministers in the security cluster, would visit the scene of a farm murder just once. You should smell it and see it: the bestial brutality of the torture; the blood on the ceilings and the walls. Only then can you really engage the farming community on this topic with authority and experience.
Dr Theo de Jager
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Saai
AFRIKAANS
’n Ope brief aan president Ramaphosa
Beste pres. Ramaphosa
Ek verwys na u ope brief vroeër vandag aan Suid-Afrikaners in die algemeen en boere in die besonder.
Baie dankie dat u dit geskryf het. Ten minste is u nou betrokke by ’n debat wat gevaarlik naby aan oorkook is. U het ’n standpunt op die tafel geplaas waaragter daar denke is. Dit is duidelik dat die meerderheid boere – en dit is daardie gedeelte van ons gemeenskap wat oor die vermoë beskik om ons land tot stilstand te bring – nie met u standpunt saamstem nie en ook nie met die aannames waarop dit gegrond is nie.
Die plofbare polarisering van ons gemeenskap is deur nóg ’n plaasmoord aan die brand gesteek. Boere, hul vriende en dié wat met hulle simpatiseer ruk al meer op om te betoog teen dié wreedaardige verskynsel, wat deur u regering ontken, afgeskeep en selfs aangestook is. Van oral oor die land heen kom hulle byeen om hul eer te betoon en in die leed van slagoffers en hul geliefdes te deel. Maar hulle kom ook byeen om hul teleurstelling uit te spreek oor die giftige omgewing wat die ANC geskep het en waarin dié verskynsel gedy. Hul woede en frustrasie het kookpunt bereik – soos ons in Senekal gesien het. Hulle kom byeen om te eis dat ons plaasaanvalle (gemiddeld een elke twee dae) en die wreedaardige moorde (gemiddeld een elke vyf dae) stopgesit word.
Die EFF en faksies in die ANC – waaronder u Jeugliga – dreig om hul ten gunste van plaasmoorde te konfronteer. U Jeugliga is gister op die voorblad van die Sunday Independent aangehaal dat hulle ’n oorlog teen boere wil begin, wat hulle vir die dood van Solomon Mahlangu en Chris Hani blameer. Ons moet nog u reaksie hierop hoor – of die reaksie van enige ander ANC-leier.
U vergelyk plaasmoorde met die moorde op Mogamad Cloete, Tawqeer Essop en André Bennett, drie jong mans wat in dieselfde week in Delft in die Wes-Kaap doodgeskiet is. Dit is ewe tragies, ja; maar dis waar die vergelyking eindig.
In Suid-Afrika is plaasaanvalle en veral plaasmoorde nie dieselfde as ander wegholstatistieke nie. Daar is drie aspekte in die besonder wat plaasmoorde van die res onderskei. Eerstens: Niemand vra in die openbaar dat township- of bendemoorde gepleeg word nie. Daar is geen populistiese wekroep om stedelike moorde te pleeg nie. Daar is geen doelbewuste skep van ’n politieke klimaat wat dit aanmoedig nie, wat wel die geval met plaasmoorde is. Plaasmoorde het gevolg op die ANC, sy leiers en sy Jeugliga se gesing van “Umshini wam” (bring my masjiengeweer) en “Kill the farmer, kill the boer”, wat die EFF intussen oorgeërf het. Het u al die twiets en Facebook-plasings gesien van masjiengewere en pangas met verwysing na die verwagte botsing in Senekal?
Belangriker: Het u regering enigiets gedoen om dit te probeer verhoed? Nee – eerder die teenoorgestelde. Luister gerus weer na minister Bheki Cele se oorval op die toneel waar die Rafferty-paar twee weke gelede in Normandien vermoor is, toe hy gewaarsku het dat boere nie moet huil as hulle seerkry nie – dít in antwoord op ’n eenvoudige vraag wat boere te doen staan as vee in hul landery ingejaag word om hul oeste te vernietig.
Die bron van die wantroue waarna u verwys, is daar in u eie kabinet.
Tweedens: Inbrake en stedelike moorde word nie met dieselfde vlak van brutaliteit gepleeg nie. Kinders word nie gedwing om toe te kyk as hul ma’s verkrag word nie; hul oë word nie uitgesteek nie; hul oumas word nie vermink deur hul knieë met staalbore te deurboor nie. Op 4 Junie 2019 het AfriForum met skokkende syfers aangetoon dat niks in bykans die helfte van dié onmenslike gevalle van geweld gesteel word nie. Dis moord bloot vir die pret daarvan.
Derdens: Ná township-moorde volg geen oorverdowende applous nie, veral nie op sosiale media nie. Honderde Twitter-rekeninge, met of sonder skuilname, verwelkom elke melding van nóg ’n grusame marteling of moordtoneel, en moedig méér aan – sonder enige gevolge. Wetstoepassende instellings blyk geen voorneme, vermoë of wil te hê om enigiets daaraan te doen nie.
Nee, daar is geen wyse waarop u ons of die wêreld gaan oortuig dat plaasmoorde maar net uitvloeisels van ’n algemene etos van geweld of moord is wat ons land oorspoel nie.
Wat kan u daaromtrent doen?
U en die ANC moet die probleem eerstens erken. Indien nie, is geen oplossing moontlik nie. Dit is hoogs onwaarskynlik dat dit op sy eie gaan gebeur. Sosiale, politieke en veral buitelandse druk moet gebruik word om die ANC sover te kry om dit te doen.
Tweedens moet u tussenbeide tree. U moet dringende besprekings hou met meer as net daardie landboustrukture wat u lof besing of u standpunte oor plaasaanvalle ondersteun. U moet ook skakel met daardie netwerke en burgerregteorganisasies soos Saai, AfriForum, die Solidariteit Beweging en die Instituut vir Rasseverhoudinge, wat namens boere praat en hul standpunte, frustrasies en woede lug.
U moet die situasie nóú ontlont terwyl dit nog moontlik is. Doen dit voordat dit verder versleg.
Ek is daarvan oortuig dat u al goed besef dat die internasionale mening verander het. Meer buitelandse koerante en TV-stasies doen nou verslag oor plaasmoorde. Vele meer bevraagteken reeds u stelling by die VN se Algemene Vergadering in New York in 2018 dat boere nie vermoor word nie.
Wat nou noodsaaklik is, is aksie. ’n Spesialiseenheid moet in die lewe geroep word om voorkomende aksie deur middel van intelligensieskakeling te neem. Dit is onvergeeflik dat daar ná 15 jaar nog geen vordering gemaak is met die SAPD se onderneming om ’n reservistemag op die been te bring ná die afskaffing van die kommando’s nie.
’n Klein maar beduidende stap sou wees om op te hou om boere te ontwapen wat van die amnestieperiode vir die hernuwing van lisensies gebruik wil maak. Die meeste van hulle het die afsnydatum misgeloop weens swak dienslewering deur landelike polisiestasies. Dit laat boere kwesbaar in die ergste moontlike tyd en onder die ergste moontlike toestande ooit. Daar is geen logiese rede hiervoor nie. Só ’n besluit sal ten minste meer sensitiwiteit gee aan die stem van redelikheid en gevoel van begrip van u kant af – en u het dit nodig.
Ek wens gereeld dat u en u kollegas – veral die ministers in u veiligheidskluster – ’n plaasmoordtoneel kan besoek, selfs net een keer. U moet dit ruik en sien: die dierlike brutaliteit van die marteling; die bloed op die plafonne en mure. Slegs dán kan u met gesag en ondervinding oor hierdie onderwerp met die landbougemeenskap saampraat.
Dr. Theo de Jager
Direksievoorsitter
