South African farm attacks
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In attacks on South African farms, predominantly white farmers and black farm workers[1] are subjected to violent crime, including murder. Farm attacks have been described as "frequent" in the post-Apartheid period, and, although some analysts believe they may be linked to racial animosity within South African society.[2][3][4][5] The South African government, and other analysts, as well as Afrikaner civil rights group Afriforum maintain that farm attacks are part of a broader crime problem in South Africa, and do not have a racial motivation.[1][6][7][8] It also remains unclear if white farmers are victims of violence at a higher rate than the general population,[9][10] with some research showing that black farm workers are the victims of violent criminal attacks at a "far higher rate", by criminal intruders, than white farm workers.[1] Statistics released in 2018 by the South African government showed that while the number of attacks had increased between 2012 and 2018, the number of murders on farms had decreased, year-on-year during the period,[11] and farming organisation AgriSA reported that the murder rate on farms had declined to the lowest level in 20 years,[12] a third of the level in 1998.[13]
A November 2017 analysis by the BBC found that there is insufficient data to estimate a murder rate for South African farmers.[9] Between 1994 and March 2012, there had been 361,015 murders in all of South Africa and between 1990 and March 2012, there had been an estimated 1,544 murders on South African farms of which 208 of the victims were Black.[14] The data for farm attacks is self-reported to a commercial farmer's organisation, Transvaal Agricultural Union. The last government analysis of farm attack victims by race was conducted in 2001. In 2001, the year with the highest number of attacks,[13] the police’s Crime Information Analysis Centre stated that of the 1,398 people attacked on farms, 61.6% were white, 33.3% were black, 4.4% were Asian and 0.7% were listed as “other”, with murders on farms in 2007 accounting for 0.6% of the national total.[15] Racial statistics around crime are no longer collected by the South African government.[16] In January 2015, AfriForum reported that there had been an increase in farm attacks and murders in the previous five years.[17]
White farmers have long complained they are at risk of rising violent crime and that they are ignored by the South African government.[18] The physical isolation of farms,[12] and the perception that farmers have cash (for the payment of wages) and weapons onsite have been described by police as a possible motivation for criminal attacks on farms.