About 20 people have been murdered on farms in 184 attacks since the beginning of this year. This is according to lobby group, Afriforum.
It says 367 farmers, 113 farm workers, and 24 guests were affected by the attacks.
AfriForum’s head of Community Safety, Ian Cameron, says in most of these incidents, the attackers had their own firearms and were not looking for cash.
He says although there is a perception that the motive for farm attacks is socio-economic, the crime is much more complex.
“It’s a unique crime that cannot only be blamed on socio-economic circumstances or other factors. There are many different aspects that need to be considered, whether it might be a labour related issue, it could be that it’s a certain gang that works in a specific area for a while. We’ve seen that some of the farm attackers are not very aggressive, that they are professional and speak very politely to their victims; they tie them up and leave. We have others where they know the victim, and they were seasonal workers that came back after two years to commit the attack. So we can’t just simplify it to just one cause.”
