Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Roy Jankielsohn MPL, and Sesotho soundbite by David Masoeu MPL.
Recent increases in farm attacks, two over the past weekend in Bultfontein and Clocolan, are cause for serious concern. Over the last two decades, rural safety has been decimated by the dissolution of the commando system, failure of the proposed sector policing system, under-resourcing of the SAPS, and porous borders.
Farmers and farm workers have been victims of theft, rape, murder, and brutal torture. Statistics supplied to the Free State Legislature indicate a poor 27,7% prosecution and 9% conviction rate for stock theft. Victims of crime become further victims of an ineffective criminal justice system.
In most instances, the farm attacks are organised and planned while the victims are vulnerable, isolated, and unable to get speedy assistance. Due to a shortage of vehicles and personnel in the SAPS, our communities across the Free State remain vulnerable to criminals. Rural communities depend on neighbours and, for those who can afford it, private security for visible policing and immediate support.
A government’s primary task is to protect its citizens from harm. The DA’s alternative proposals for rural safety include intelligence-led policing, the use of technology, rapid-response rural safety units, visible policing, improved road infrastructure, and enhanced border security.
The DA has tabled a Free State policing bill that will soon go out for public hearings, assisting local efforts to improve policing and rural safety in the Free State.