As attacks against immigrants in South Africa continue, the plight of South African farmers and white South Africans facing genocide has been forgotten. According to the Times of London, over 4,000 farmers were murdered since the end of apartheid in South Africa.
South African police claim the farmers are largely targeted because their locations are remote, and the perception that there are valuables and guns available. Farmers perceive the attacks as racially motivated , and land is a sensitive issue in South Africa because 87 percent of the farmland is currently held by the white minority, according to Reuters.
According to Ernst Roets, deputy chief executive of AfriForum, an organization that represents white South Africans on various issues like affirmative action, said that the number of murders had declined. The peak occurred in 2004 with 115 murders, and then declined to 96 in 2011. Attacks against farmers rose to 277 in 2014.
“We can’t say it in all cases but we know some of these attacks are racially motivated.”
Attacks once again against farmers increased in 2013, when president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, sang a song about killing the Boer. According to Genocide Watch , which rated South Africa as a six on a scale of eight for genocide , the lyrics of the song call for genocide, reports National Review.
“We are going to shoot them with machine guns, they are going to run… The cabinet will shoot them, with the machine gun… Shoot the Boer, we are going to hit them, they are going to run.”
Genocide Watch stated that the consequence is that white farmers and their families have been subjected to “murder, rape, mutilation and torture.” Although the current murder rate of South Africans is 31 per 100,000, one of the highest in the world, they said that the murder rate for white farmers is four times higher than that of the rest of the population.
Much of the friction they believe is a result of the ANC, the current ruling party of South Africa, referring to the white population as “settlers.” Whites have lived in South Africa for over 350 years, and were farming South Africa before “Newton discovered gravity.”
Currently, South Africa is the rape capital of the world with approximately 132 rapes per 100,000. Police were ordered to stop reporting crimes by race. According to Genocide Watch, a culture of corruption, rape and murder are normal.
Although the South African government has done little to help prevent the murder of farmers, SANDF troops were dispatched to Kwazu Natal to put a stop to the attacks against immigrants. The strongest criticism against President Zuma for his actions in handling these crises came from his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma , the chairwoman of the African Union. Dlamini-Zuma argued that diversity is South Africa’s biggest strength, and that South Africa belongs to all as outlined in the original charter of South Africa, and many South Africans agree, the New York Times reports.
As early as 2002, eight years after apartheid ended, 60 percent of South Africans said that life under apartheid was better. Because of the stain of apartheid, the Western World continues to look the other way on white genocide and farm murders in South Africa. What do you think of the farm murders and white genocide in South Africa?
[Photo Credit Demotix ]