Note to Editors: Please find attached a video by by Leona Kleynhans MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today launched a provincial Court Watching Briefs Unit in the Free State as a means to specifically assist victims of farm attacks, and their families, and to put those attackers behind bars.
The situation in our rural areas is now at crisis point, with a sharp rise in attacks and murders.
According to a reply to our question in the Free State Legislature the number of murders during farm attacks showed a 50% increase in the 2019/2020 year.
A total of twelve people were murdered during 67 farm attacks, compared to eight murders during 44 attacks in the previous year (2018/19). It is clear that attacks on farmers and farm workers and their families is becoming more frequent and more violent.
The DA’s Rural Safety Watching Briefs Unit will act as an unofficial liaison between police, the prosecution services, the victims of farm attacks and other affected people.
We will stand by the side of the victims of these horrific crimes, and assist them through the sometimes daunting police and court processes.
Our MPs and MPLs will act in the best interests of a victim of a farm attack and as important liaisons in order to facilitate the swift proceedings and to achieve a quick and just outcome from our criminal justice system.
A watching brief can and should do the following:
- Monitor police conduct;
- Monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service;
- Promote good relations between the police and the community;
- Assess the effectiveness of visible policing; and
- Liaise with the DA Shadow Cabinet member in Parliament responsible for policing or prosecutions with respect to crime, policing and prosecutions.
One of our own councillors, herself a farmer, was brutally attacked five years ago, and despite DNA proof, and endless court appearances, the alleged attacker is still free, and living near her. Why and how could this possibly happen in South Africa today?
Why has it taken the influence of the Shadow Minister of Justice, Adv Glynis Breytenbach, to ensure the case has suddenly been in court on two consecutive days?
This interminable wait for justice, while re-living the terrible trauma with each court appearance, is tantamount to repeated violations of the victim. To wait five years for justice in an apparently cut and dried case, is no justice at all.
What chance do farmers have of justice when they, their families, farm managers, farm workers or visitors to a farm are victims of violent attacks, rapes or murders and then become further victims of a lethargic criminal justice system.
With our Rural Safety Watching Briefs in each province the DA hopes to improve those chances. Farm attacks are terrorising our rural areas and as long as the attackers get away with their crimes, the horror is just going to continue.
With this initiative, the DA seeks to ensure that criminals end up behind bars as soon as possible and the violence comes to an end.