South African farm attacks () are violent crimes, including assault, murder, rape, and robbery, that take place on farms in South Africa. The attacks target both white and black farmers. The term has no formal legal definition, but such attacks have been the subject of discussion by media and public figures in South Africa and abroad.
Claims that such attacks on farmers disproportionately target white people are a key element of the white genocide conspiracy theory promoted by, among others, United States president Donald Trump, and have become a common talking point among white nationalists worldwide. Statistics provided from the South African Government show that farm attacks tend to take more black victims than white victims and show that farm attacks are relatively rare. Farm attacks form part of a broader crime problem in South Africa and do not have a racial motivation.
Terminology and definition South African statutory law does not define a "farm attack" as a specific crime. Rather, the term is used to refer to a number of different crimes committed against persons specifically on commercial farms or smallholdings. According to the South African Police Service (SAPS) National Operational Co-ordinating Committee:Attacks on farms and smallholdings refer to acts aimed on the persons of residents, workers and visitors to farms and smallholdings, whether with the intent to murder, rape, rob or inflict bodily harm. In addition, all actions aimed at disrupting farming activities as a commercial concern, whether for motives related to ideology, labour disputes, land issues, revenge, grievances or intimidation, should be included.
This definition excludes "social fabric crimes", that is those crimes committed by members of the farming community on one another, such as domestic or workplace violence, and focuses on outsiders entering the farms to commit specific criminal acts. Dina Pule, the safety and security Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Mpumalanga Province, has disagreed with this definition and has said that "farm attacks" included only those cases "where farm residents were murdered and not cases of robberies or attempted murders". Human Rights Watch has criticised the use of the term "farm attacks", which they regard as "suggesting a terrorist or military purpose", which they do not believe is the primary motivation for most farm attacks.
Findings The phenomenon, and the extent to which it is politicised, has been the focus of a number of investigations. The 2003 Report Of The Special Committee Of Inquiry Into Farm Attacks by the SAPS found that most incidents were driven by a desire for material gain and that "very few cases have political overtones."
There are insufficient data to reliably estimate a murder rate for South African farmers. South African government data indicated between 58 and 74 murders on farms annually in the period 2015–2017; out of an annual murder count of 20,000 total murders in South Africa; these figures are broadly consistent with figures collected by the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU), a farmers' union. Due to the problems associated with counting the number of South African farmers and farm murders, it is unclear whether farmers are at greater risk of being murdered than other South Africans.
Data released by the South African government in 2018 showed that the number of farm attacks had increased between 2012 and 2018, but that the number of murders on farms had decreased year by year during the period. During the same year farming organisation AgriSA reported on police statistics which suggested that the murder rate on farms had declined to the lowest level in 20 years, to a third of the level recorded in 1998.
Motives
According to the South African government, the chief motive for attacks is robbery. A Committee of Inquiry into Farm Attacks was appointed in 2001 by the National Commissioner of Police. The purpose of the committee was to "inquire into the ongoing spate of attacks on farms, which include violent criminal acts such as murder, robbery, rape, to determine the motives and factors behind these attacks and to make recommendations on their findings". Monetary theft occurred in most of the attacks, firearms were stolen in 23.0%, and 16.0% of farm attacks involved vehicular theft. The committee noted that "there is a common misconception that in a large proportion of farm attacks little is stolen" and "various items are stolen by far in the majority of cases and, in those cases where nothing is taken, there is almost always a logical explanation, such as that the attackers had to leave quickly because help arrived."
The Natives' Land Act, adopted in 1913, restricted black South Africans' ownership of land and the right to legally rent land to around 10% of South Africa. The modern discontent among black South Africans has caused populists to call for a confiscation of white-owned farms in the north. The EFF political party, founded by Julius Malema, demands redistribution of the land and wealth, alongside pressure for land expropriation without compensation. As of March 2011, 31 million hectares or 25% of the 122 million hectares surface area of South Africa were in the hands of the State. The remaining 91 million hectares or 75% of the surface area was privately owned. Proponents of the theory that farm attacks disproportionately target white people point to racial hostility as a result of this situation as a motive for the attacks.
The apartheid era chants "One settler, one bullet" and Dubul'ibhunu ("Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer") are often accused of inciting farm attacks or associated with the phenomenon. The leader of the EFF, Julius Malema, has repeatedly been involved in reciting the chant "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" as one of the signature chants for his party, prompting criticism from within South Africa and abroad.
Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), has said that attacks were typically motivated not by race but by greed. The South African Police Service (SAPS) declared in 1998 that there had been no evidence at the time of systematic organised attacks, although the matter was being looked into by special investigators resulting in the Report Of The Special Committee Of Inquiry Into Farm Attacks (2003).
Statistics
The SAPS stopped releasing homicide statistics on farm murders in 2007 instead merging them with all homicide figures, this has increased the difficulty of accessing reliable statistics on the phenomenon with most studies since relying on data from the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAUSA) instead.
Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies has stated that statistics provided by the TAUSA significantly under reports the number of violent attacks on farmers as they are not informed of incidents on smallholdings. Attacks on smallholdings account for up to 40% of violent incidents classified as 'farm attacks.' This, Burger argues, indicates that statistics on farm attacks since 2007 likely under report the phenomenon.
In 2003 the Freedom Front political party stated that farmers were "being murdered at a rate of 274 per 100,000" whilst the national murder rate was 61 per 100,000 people. The Freedom Front also alleged that Afrikaners specifically were being singled out for attacks.
According to media reports, , approximately 3,158–3,811 South African farmers have been killed in these attacks. Self-reported data from the TAUSA state that 1,544 people were killed in farm attacks from 1990 to 2012. In 2012, Reuters reported that the number of farmers of European descent had decreased by one third since 1997, and that news headlines about farm killings provided incentive for them to sell their properties. A 2012 report by the South African Institute of Race Relations estimated that farmers were between 2 and 3 times more likely to become victims of homicides than other members of society.
During the South Africa's hard lockdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic, crime, including rural crime, decreased. The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) political party claimed that they increased once the lockdown restrictions were lifted. Agriculture organisations the TAUSA, and Free State Agriculture stated that attacks and murders had increased over the full year in 2020.
Criticism of response Gideon Meiring, chairperson of the TAUSA's safety and security committee, criticised the South African Police Service for failing to prevent farm attacks, stating that the police "are not part of the solution but part of the bloody problem". Meiring has assisted farming communities in setting up private armed patrols in their area. Kallie Kriel of AfriForum accused politicians, including Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana and her deputy Dirk du Toit, of inciting hatred against farmers, saying "Those who inflame hate and aggression towards farmers have to be regarded as accomplices to the murders of farmers." In particular, Kriel condemned claims that violence against farm workers by farmers was endemic.
Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies has said that the government's dismantling of the commando system had created a vacuum which the current rural safety plan was not addressing adequately. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said that the military commando personnel were "unwilling to serve a black government and were hostile to democracy in South Africa", adding that "former commando members were politically indoctrinated and supplied with weapons and training to spy on blacks in their areas, making this military structure wholly unsuited to the new South Africa."
While Human Rights Watch has described a general trend of escalation in "farm attacks" since 1994, and noted a lack of government response to them, its 2001 study found that the failures of the government response disproportionately affected black farm residents. "In practice, however, the plan has significantly increased insecurity for black residents of and visitors to commercial farming areas, as they have become the targets of sometimes indiscriminate "anti-crime" initiatives ... In addition, the rural protection plan has largely failed to respond to crime committed against black farm residents, in particular crime committed by white farm owners."
Prevention While the police are supposed to regularly visit commercial farms to ensure security, they say they cannot provide effective protection due to the wide areas that need to be covered and a lack of funding. 'Farmwatch' groups have been formed with the intention of filling this protection gap. These groups use radio to coordinate mutual assistance between farmers, local Commando volunteers, and private security companies. The particular mix of groups that operate has varied by area, with wealthier farmers being more likely to employ private security firms. The police and these groups are linked together as part of the Rural Protection Plan, created in 1997 by President Nelson Mandela. Some white farmers have undertaken self-defence training, with some farmers trained by an Israeli special forces veteran.
In 2003 the government began disbanding commando units, saying they had been "part of the apartheid state's security apparatus". A 2013 study from the University of the Free State concluded that this disbanding compromised rural security, as police have prioritised South Africa's urban crime problems.
Protest action
A spike in violent attacks on farmers in February 2017 led to one of the country's largest prayer meetings being held on 22–23 April 2017 in Bloemfontein, attracting over 1,000,000 participants.