Angry farmers
voice concerns

Farm attacks up by 83% in 2004-5

By TOM MAPHAM

FARMER Nico Smuts’ farm turns from a peaceful Eastern Cape idyll into a fortress as the sun goes down each evening.

A huge spotlight illuminates the open area around the house where there are no bushes or shadows to hide would-be intruders on this land near Sterkstroom, about 10 kilometres south of Queenstown.

Three bull terriers romp on the open lawn, and every window is marked by the crisis-cross of burglar bars.

“I take security seriously, and it all helps,” he said.

Security on Smuts’ farm, as on farms across the province, has increased since the murder of 69-year old Anna-Marie Geyer in the chicken-run on her farm outside Sterkstroom two weeks ago.

The brutal killing sent shockwaves through the province’s rural community, and the next day Smuts, who represents nine farmers associations at their union Agri-EC, decided to do more than just talk about it.

With support from Agri-EC he invited SAPS provincial commissioner Mpumelelo Landu and other officials to a meeting in Queenstown on Wednesday. More than 400 farmers from Maclear to Despatch, arrived to pose questions to the senior police officials.

Many blame police for failing to create a working replacement for the century old commandos that are being disbanded around the country. They also blame laws seen to protect criminals more than victims.

The police and army officials advised community members to take responsibility for their own safety, and urged ex-commando members to sign up as police reservists.

The police captain managing the handover of commandos to the new sector policing model, Captain Deon Zeelie, said for each of the 16 disbanded commandos in the province there were “workable” sector policing structures in place.

He urged farmers to “fall-in” and make them work.

The crowd gave his presentation polite applause.

But Morris Lavin’s statement that “a person must have a basic right to defend himself” met with thunderous applause.

During more than two hours of questions many accused the police of being inefficient and incapable.

Mike Cloete, a farmer from Indwe said he did not want to be associated with the police he had dealt with, accusing them of being drunk on duty and often incapable of taking statements.

Others voiced their unhappiness with signing up as reservists.

One said he did not want to sign up because he did not want to end up doing administrative work in a station, when his expertise lay with his knowledge of local farmland.

He asked whether reservists would be issued with guns and if not, he asked what motivation there was to join?

Arthur Berry, from the Sterkstroom area said he was concerned that he would not have legal cover for actions they took while on duty.

But after the meeting Berry, an ex-commando company leader from the Sterkstroom area, was still hopeful for the future. He reckoned with a bit of “panel-beating” the sector policing programme might work.

“Life goes on, I realise that they cannot do it on their own,” he said.

But during the meeting, farmers suggested they were living in a war zone.

Pat Vorster asked: “If President Mbeki is the peace-maker of the world why don’t we have peace in our country?”

Agri-EC’s provincial president, Cerneels Pietersen, closed the meeting by signing an eight-page memorandum calling on senior police and government officials to denounce murders and increase police capacity.

A last-minute vote on the death penalty led to its inclusion in the farmers’ memorandum. This echoed a statement made earlier by a Molteno farmer, that “severe punishment is the only solution for crime in South Africa”.

Pietersen said there was a “lack of service” by police at local level.

He said farm attacks had increased by 83 percent between 2004 and 2005 and that while in most cases perpetrators had been apprehended, this was reactive policing.

“We need more proactive measures,” he said.

In the crowd was Wikus Geyer, whose wife, Anna-Marie, was murdered two weeks ago on their farm, Dedoorns.

Geyer said he was glad that the two suspects had been caught.

“I hope they put them away for a long time,” he said.

Lize Pretorius from Agri–EC urged farmers to take the sector policing and their personal security seriously. She urged farmers to invest in burglar bars, padlocks on every door and gate, big aggressive dogs and regular shooting practice.