Agri Hour
A new strategy needs to be developed to combat farm attacks─── ELSABÉ RICHARD 05:00 Mon, 21 Sep 2020

When farmers are able to defend themselves, they will be able to defend their families and neighbours against farm attackers.
This was recently brought to light during a webinar about farm attacks and food security in South Africa. The panel consisted of five speakers, which included the President of the World Farmer’s Association, Dr Theo de Jager, and Independent Community Safety and Violent Crime expert, Ian Cameron. They spoke about the difficulties farmers face and the possible solutions to combat this plague in the rural areas of the country.
OFM News’ Elsabé Richard attended this webinar.
See PODCAST below
De Jager states that citizens cannot fight farm attacks on their own, the government needs to acknowledge that this is a problem. He says thereafter, a programme can be launched where the capacity of the police is strengthened in rural South Africa. De Jager adds that relationships need to be strengthened between rural communities and the police in order to combat the problem together.
He says there should also be more sympathy for the situation on farms. As an example of this, De Jager spoke about the current amnesty period for the renewal of firearm licenses and the difficulty farmer’s face when approaching their local police stations. He says there are many individuals who need to renew their licenses but due to challenges faced at these stations, they become discouraged. This may lead to them missing the deadline.
He explains that the new rules of the current amnesty period require one to hand in firearms that have expired licenses and farmers choose not to do so in fear of what might happen if they are under attack and have nothing to defend themselves with.
Adding to this, Cameron brought to the fore steps that could to be considered as the foundation of a good community-based rural safety strategy. He suggests that within the framework of the law, farmers should be legally trained to use a firearm in a situation where the use of the firearm is required.
He says when these farming communities are adequately equipped and have built a trustworthy relationship with the police, attackers will shy away from these areas.
He says farmers and their workers in rural areas need to find a way to patrol their areas together and find a way to make sure that they are equally trained to handle certain situations.
Furthermore, Cameron alluded that if the approach in which certain community safety initiatives are structured remains unchanged, the fight against farm attacks will not be won.
OFM News