

Activists say South African authorities are tacitly approving attacks on the country's white farmers, with one being murdered every five days, and the police turning a blind eye to the violence.

The white nationalist lobbying group AfriForum says that when lawmakers passed a motion last month which could see land being seized from farmers without compensation, it sent a message that landowners could be attacked with impunity.

It said there have been 109 recorded attacks so far in 2018 and 15 farm murders, meaning that this year, one white farmer has been killed every five days.

In a statement, Ian Cameron, AfriForum's Head of Safety said: "Our rural areas are trapped in a crime war. Although the South African government denies that a violence crisis is staring rural areas in the face, the numbers prove that excessive violence plague these areas."



"What is happening to us is torture, it is slaughter, it is brutal, it is revenge. The world doesn't know what is happening in South Africa," he said.

Hannetjie Ludik, 56, from Pretoria, told the paper that three armed men broke into her family's house, stole money and raped her.

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said the government did not condone attacks or the the seizure of white-owned farms and insisted there would be no repeat of what happened in Zimbabwe a generation ago.

But AfriForum says that the parliament's bill has led to a culture of revenge among those spoiling for a redistribution of land in a country where some 80% of people describe themselves as black African, but only 1.2% of that community own the country's rural land.

Julius Malema, the head of South Africa's ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), has called for land to be taken off white farmers. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

The policy was proposed by the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema who says redistributing land can correct historical injustices.

While there is broader political support for the move, a more measured approach is being called for by Kenneth Meshoe, the head of the African Christian Democratic Party, who told The Independent he believes in land distribution, although he says it should not be taken without compensation

"People like Malema who are promoting hate speech should not be allowed," he added.

Thousands of people have signed a petition asking Donald Trump to let white people in South Africa to migrate to the U.S.


He provocatively said that such people could be helped from "a civilized country like ours", sparking anger from South Africa's Foreign Ministry which called for a retraction.

The fact-checking website, Africa Check, concluded in May 2017 that getting an accurate statistic on the country's farm murder rate, which it estimated at 0.4 murders per 100,000 people, was "near impossible".

Gareth Newham from South Africa's Institute for Security Studies, told the Guardian there was no evidence white farmers were targeted any more than anyone else.

A White Farmer Is Killed Every Five Days in South Africa and Authorities Do Nothing about It, Activists Say | World