One murder in South Africa is one too many.
This was agreed in a joint meeting between the police and agriculture committee in Parliament on Wednesday, 19 March 2025.
Issues including rural safety and stock theft were discussed. But opinions began to differ and tensions rose when the focus turned to farm murders.
The killing of farmers is often used to drive the idea of a “white genocide” in South Africa, and it is a theme US President Donald Trump seems to have drawn on when formulating last month’s executive order cutting off aid to South Africa.
People from this country have before also gone to the US to detail their stance on issues including farm murders, among them representatives of AfriForum.
The latest South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics showed that one farmer was killed over the final three months of 2024 – which AfriForum contested and some politicians referred to in Parliament on Wednesday, saying it was proof that there was no “white genocide” in the country.
Scientific evidence and facts
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu also referred to the issue at the meeting. He said that “those who are concerned about the issues of genocide of farmers, or the notion of genocide of white farmers… I think we need to talk our collective language based on scientific evidence as South Africans.
“And where we tend to have nuances that are not desirable, that are not factual, but are influenced by other factors, we need to avoid those.”
Mchunu said police needed to focus on winning “the war against crime” and not other issues.
A SAPS presentation on the implementation of the national rural safety strategy was shown at Wednesday’s meeting. It said that according to the latest crime statistics, covering three months from October to December last year, there had been 12 murders linked to farming communities.
One farmer killed
Of the 12 people murdered, four were farm employees, five had been staying on farms, one was a security officer, while another was listed as “not specified.”
One person killed was a farmer.
Murder, farming community, SAPS 19 March 2025. (Source: Screengrab)
The police presentation said that “an internal integrated incidents analysis committee”, consisting of officers from units including crime intelligence and detective and forensic services, met bi-weekly to analyse violence in rural areas.
In January, an “integrated comparison committee,” consisting of organisations including AfriForum, Agri-SA and Stop Attacks and Farm Murders, was also established.
It enabled police and other organisations to compare data relating to reported incidents.
The police presentation explained that various organisations may have different statistics on farm crimes from those of the SAPS. This was because of factors that included that SAPS worked only with incidents officially reported to it and used definitions contained in its rural safety strategy, which could differ from what other organisations used.
Police statistics were also captured over a financial year (between 1 April and 31 March) and not a calendar year.
Crime statistics structure to change
At Wednesday’s meeting, Mchunu said police representatives met AfriForum on Monday about the disputed crime statistics. (While SAPS statistics said one farmer had been killed between October and December, AfriForum countered that there had been eight killings.)
The outcome of the meeting was unclear.
Mchunu also said that as of next month, the structure of the police’s crime statistics would change. Rural crimes would be presented differently from how such incidents had previously been reflected.
For example, crimes on farms would be divided into categories, with smallholdings and big, or commercial, farms separated. Townships would also be viewed as rural or urban.
Mchunu said such variables would be factored into future crime statistics.
Report- Afriforum on Farm murders - South Africa
‘Protect rural communities, dispel lies’
At the meeting, Makashule Gana of Rise Mzansi reiterated that it was accepted that “one death in South Africa is one too many”. He pointed out that there was an ongoing disinformation campaign on the targeting of farmers, especially white farmers, in the country.
“But when you look at the statistics, you realise that it’s not true,” Gana said. “There’s no such targeting, or mass killings, of farmers.
“I think there’s a responsibility… the responsibility on both committees, the portfolio committee on police and the portfolio committee on agriculture, to start putting out to the public that yes, we do have a crime problem in South Africa, but it’s not true that there’s a deliberate organised killing of farmers in South Africa because the statistics do not support that.”
Gana said he was raising the issue because there were various organisations, “whether it’s AfriForum, Solidarity and others”, who were promoting false narratives.
“Yes, we do need to protect the rural communities, but we do need to dispel the lies around a focused, deliberate organised killing of farmers,” he said.
‘We must be very sensitive’
Fadiel Adams of the National Coloured Congress noted that one farmer and a few farm workers had been killed over three months. It was not clear how the workers were murdered.
He questioned whether farmers may have killed them.
Adams also asked: “Can we put out the statement that there’s no such thing as a white genocide, or an assault, or an attack, on white farmers in this country as some people would have us believe?”
Agriculture committee chair Dina Pule, responding to Adams and Gana, agreed with Gana that “one death is one too many” and added that the race of the dead person did not matter.
“We have a situation… where there’s a narrative that is driven, you know, of the focused attack on the rural communities and in particular, to white farmers,” Pule said.
“And I think as we speak here, we also have to be responsible and not just, you know, talk”.
She was hesitant about issuing a statement that could inadvertently fuel certain narratives and said the agriculture and police committees needed to ensure both departments worked to protect everyone.
“I think we must be very sensitive … and realise that crime affects everyone … it touches everybody … whether you’re in an urban area or a rural area”.
On the ground
There were heated exchanges at Wednesday’s meeting.
Petrus Sitho, a farm safety activist and a guest of the joint committee, spoke passionately about the impact of crime on farmers and farm workers.
“We are on the ground, where there are farm attacks, where there is stock theft,” he said. In some cases, he interviewed those affected by crimes before police officers did.
He made it clear that he did not want to create any divisions through his stance on farm attacks. “We don’t need those that say they are going to kill the white farmers, including their dogs,” Sitho said.
“If I were president, I’d make sure I arrest them.”
Priority crime plus ‘commandos’ plea
Sitho implored Mchunu for the return of the “security commandos” – an apparent reference to former commando units, involved in rural safety, that were phased out in 2003 (that year, the Mail & Guardian described commando units as “a paramilitary force that was part of the apartheid state’s security apparatus”).
Kallie Roux, referring to a petition he delivered with Sitho, said that attacks on farmers were “attacks on our rural communities”.
“Farm attacks must be classified as priority crimes,” he said, explaining that this could result in more resources for dealing with such lawbreaking.
Reacting to Sitho and Roux’s presentation, Mazwi Blose of the Economic Freedom Fighters described it as “horrible” and out of touch with crime statistics.
He said Sitho appeared to have become excited at being in a meeting with Mchunu. Sitho told Blose, “You can’t say that. You don’t know me.”
Blose said Mchunu should perhaps give Sitho a copy of Frantz Fanon’s book, Black Skin, White Masks.
‘Cruelty across racial lines’
The DA’s Ian Cameron, chairperson of the portfolio committee on police, concluded the meeting, saying it was important to understand how different crimes affected different communities, without detracting from the value of someone’s life.
“I find it worrying to hear a narrative where some think that someone’s life might be worth more because of the colour of their skin or because of their cultural background,” he said.
“That’s not the point.”
He found it “discouraging to hear the constant reference to race” at Wednesday’s meeting. “The cruelty of farm attacks in South Africa is across racial lines and is horrific. I’ve been on the scenes, I’ve been on many of them, in fact, and worked with it a long time.”
Cameron was previously an AfriForum member and in that capacity had spoken out about farm murders in South Africa, even talking about the issue to Australian media.
Missing farmer murdered
Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s meeting, a specific farmer’s murder was repeatedly mentioned, emphasising the grim realities.
David Netshilaphala, 62, went missing after realising three of his cattle were gone when he went to check on the animals on 27 February 2025 in Xikundu Village, Limpopo.
A police statement said residents had subsequently begun to set alight the homes of individuals they believed to be responsible for Netshilaphala’s disappearance.
“Six houses were burnt and one person from the community was arrested and charged with arson,” the police statement said.
Farmers provided police with information about the potential suspects and on 10 March, two were arrested for murder and stock theft.
“The suspects led the police to a crime scene where they dumped the body believed to be [that] of the missing person,” the statement said.
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