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<\/p>\n22 July 2025 | 08:05 CAT
\n2-minute read<\/p>\n
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The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) has come under fire for voting against a parliamentary report aimed at tackling farm attacks and rural crime in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA), which backed the report, has labelled FF+\u2019s opposition \u201cshort-sighted\u201d and politically motivated.<\/p>\n
The report, compiled by a joint committee of Parliament\u2019s Agriculture and Police portfolios, addresses a petition on farm murders.\u00a0It acknowledges the unique nature of farm attacks, characterised by brutality, and emphasises that all citizens are equal before the law.\u00a0It also highlights the need for targeted oversight visits to agricultural areas, focusing on the “nature and extent of violence against farmworkers”.<\/p>\n
For years, civil society organisations, agricultural unions and opposition MPs have decried what they saw as a lack of political will to address rural crime, especially violent attacks on farmers and farm workers. Until recently, the state\u2019s position was ambivalent, with President Cyril Ramaphosa once controversially denying the existence of farm murders.<\/p>\n
But this new report, backed by extensive deliberations and multiple evidence-based recommendations, not only acknowledges the existence of farm attacks but details their premeditated and brutal nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we’ve got two parliamentary committees\u2026 not only admitting that farm murders and farm attacks is a reality, they also admit the brutal nature thereof,\u201d said Willie Aucamp, DA national spokesperson and Member of the National Assembly of South Africa.<\/p>\n
Among the 14 recommendations in the report are the establishment of a specialised rural safety unit within the South African Police Service (SAPS), improved intelligence-sharing between law enforcement and farming communities, and audits of police capacity in rural regions. It also advocates for stronger cross-border crime prevention, particularly in hotspot areas such as the Free State-Lesotho border, and for improved coordination between SAPS and community leaders, including farm guards and traditional authorities.<\/p>\n
One of the more contentious recommendations calls for oversight visits to farms to ensure that the rights of farm workers are being upheld. While the DA has defended this provision, stating that such oversight already exists in other forms, FF+ has rejected it outright, framing it as a potential \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against farmers.<\/p>\n
According to Aucamp, this rejection was not based on factual evidence, but on political posturing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all the meetings that we’ve had on this farm murder report, the Freedom Front Plus, not one of the members once attended our meetings,\u201d he said. \u201cTo come now afterwards and play cheap politicking because you want to get a hit on the DA\u2026 is just unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
FF+\u2019s vote against the report was also aligned with that of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. However, the DA and its allies in the committee secured enough votes to adopt the report.<\/p>\n
The challenge now lies in implementation. Rural communities continue to bear the brunt of poor policing, delayed response times, and cross-border criminal syndicates. Conviction rates remain low, due in part to weak coordination between investigators and prosecutors \u2014 another issue the report aims to address.<\/p>\n