Following several recent deadly attacks in South African provinces such as Limpopo and the Western Cape, South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), called on Tuesday for a Commission of Inquiry into the killings on farms across the country.
The party said that in the Limpopo incident, a prominent businesswoman and a relative were burnt to death by their assailants, while in the Western Cape, a couple was found murdered on their farm at Aurora near Piketberg.
In this regard, DA MP Noko Masipa stressed the need to react to these crimes perpetrated on farms and targeting farming communities, while warning that these murders threaten the country’s food security.
For its part, the AfriForum group expressed concern that there had been no significant decrease in attacks on farms between last year and this year. Indeed, a report by the group revealed that at least 77 farm attacks took place in the first quarter of this year, compared to 80 attacks, including 11 murders, during the same period last year.
The report, which was made public on Monday, also revealed that most of the attacks took place in the provinces of Gauteng and North West.