Elke boer in Suid-Afrika – groot en klein, arm en ryk, swart en wit, en ongeag politieke affiliasie – wil weet:
Hoe moet ons boer as kommunale beeste elke nag in ons lande ingejaag word en ons oeste vernietig? Hoe moet landbou gedy as daar geen respek vir eiendoms- of verblyfreg is nie? Die tirade van Bheki Cele, Minister van Polisie, voor boere in Normandien – nadat die vraag baie beleefd aan hom gestel is – ontbloot die kern van die probleem en die ANC se rol daarin.
Die Minister het ná sy emosionele uitbarsting nooit die vraag beantwoord nie. Boere hoop egter dat elke opposisieparty in die parlement dié vraag sal bly vra.
Plaasbetreders het op 18 Augustus ’n suksesvolle swart boer in Tzaneen se plaas afgebrand, drade geknip en gesteel, en boonop die afgelope naweek sy besproeiingsdam se krane afgeslaan. Die plaasbetreders treiter dié boer al vir jare en die SAPD weier om ’n saak te open.
In Noordwes kom plaasaktiwiteite in die Hartbeesfontein-omgewing tot stilstand omdat die SAPD versuim om vakbondaangehitsde plakkers van kommersiële plase te verwyder. Die regskostes wat boere moet aangaan om die wet toegepas te kry, beloop reeds meer as die waarde van hul plase.
AfriForum het in Junie toegetree om 500 grondgrypers van klein plase van swart, wit, bruin en Indiër eienaars in Elandsfontein, suid van Johannesburg, te verwyder toe die SAPD nie ’n hofbevel wou toepas nie.
Minister Cele se uitbarsting skep verdere beleidsonsekerheid en skeptisisme onder sowel plaaslike grondeienaars as wêreldwyd onder handelsvennote en beleggers, wat vrees dat ad hoc-grondbesettings eerder as grondwetwysigings – soos wat in Zimbabwe gebeur het – die sneller tot ekonomiese inploffing sal wees.
Minister Cele se besoek aan Normandien volg op die moord op die Rafferty-egpaar, wat internasionaal opslae gemaak het. Sedert President Cyril Ramaphosa se ontkenning in 2018 by die VN se Algemene Raadsvergadering in New York – naamlik dat plaasmoorde in Suid Afrika ’n probleem is – het internasionale belangstelling in plaasaanvalle skerp toegeneem. Saai neem byna weekliks aan digitale konferensies oor dié tema deel. Videomateriaal soos dié van Minister Cele se optrede in Normandien kom handig te pas om aan te toon hoe die ANC-regering ’n klimaat skep waarin plaasaanvalle gedy en waarom buitelandse druk nodig is om die VN se Universele Verklaring van Menseregte in Suid-Afrika af te dwing.
Saai se familieboereresolusie, wat verlede jaar in Rome binne die konteks van die VN se Dekade van Familieboere geloods is, beklemtoon die krisis wat onteiening sonder vergoeding en plaasaanvalle in die Suider-Afrikaanse landbou-omgewing veroorsaak. Dié resolusie geniet wye aanhang sowel plaaslik as in die buiteland. Minister Cele se uitbarsting plaas die ANC sentraal in die aanhitsing van die knellendste probleme wat familieboerderye in die gesig staar. Die respek wat Minister Cele al gillende opeis, soos vertroue, word ongelukkig nie verdien nie – en beslis nie afgedwing nie.
Saai condemns Minister Cele’s statements
Every farmer in South Africa – large and small, poor and rich, black and white, regardless political affiliation – wants to know: How are we supposed to farm if communal cattle are driven into our fields at night, destroying our crops? How can farming flourish if there is no respect for property or subsistence rights? The spate of words from Bheki Cele, Minister of Police, before farmers in Normandien – after this question was directed at him in a polite manner – uncovers the core of the problem and the ANC’s role in this.
The Minister never answered the question after his emotional outburst. Farmers hope that opposition parties in parliament will continue asking this question, however.
Trespassers torched the farm of a successful black farmer outside Tzaneen on 18 August and cut his fences and stole property. Over the past weekend they broke off his faucets of his irrigation dam. The trespassers have been harassing the farmer for years on end, while the SAPS refuses to open a case.
In the North West, farming activities came to all but a halt in the Hartbeesfontein area because the SAPS fails to remove union-incited squatters from commercial farms. The legal costs that farmers incur to have the law enforced amount to more than the value of their farms.
AfriForum intervened in June to have 500 land occupiers removed from small farms of black, white, brown and Indian farmers in Elandsfontein, south of Johannesburg, after the SAPS had refused to enforce a court order.
Minister Cele’s outburst further creates policy uncertainty and scepticism among local land owners as well as international commercial partners and investors, who fear that ad hoc land occupations rather than changes to the Constitution – as had happened in Zimbabwe – would be the trigger for an economic implosion.
Minister Cele’s visit to Normandien came after the murder of the Rafferty couple, which made international headlines. Since President Cyril Ramaphosa’s denial in 2018 at the UN’s General Assembly in New York – namely that farm murders are no problem in South Africa – international interest in farm attacks skyrocketed. Saai participates almost every week in digital conferences on this theme. Video footage of behaviour like that of Cele’s provide ample proof of how the ANC is creating a climate in which farm attacks proliferate and why international pressure is essential to enforce the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in South Africa.
Saai’s family farmers resolution, launched in Rome last year within the context of the UN’s Decade of the Family Farmer, emphasises the crisis that expropriation without compensation and farm attacks are causing in the South African agricultural environment. The resolution enjoys wide support locally as well as abroad. Minister Cele’s outburst places the ANC central in the incitement of the most difficult problem that face family farms. The respect that Cele screamingly demands, like trust, is unfortunately not deserved – and definitely not enforceable.
