Farm murders may cause food and job security crisis

IOL reports that a message slamming the government for its apparent lack of commitment to rural safety and to the country's estimated 55 000 commercial farmers was delivered at an agricultural union briefing - held recently in Pretoria - to discuss crime and its impact on the country's farming sector.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union's (TAU-SA's) assistant general manager Chris van Zyl said that a commercial farmer supplies food for 1 600 people on average and, if attacked, a farm can lie fallow for up to eight years, which threatens food security and job creation. "What is happening cannot continue," van Zyl said, adding that the union was desperate to meet the government to discuss ways of improving rural safety, increase food security and preserve jobs. TAU-SA alleges that senior police officers and government officials ignored requests from the organisation to attend the meeting. The union is now preparing to hand a memorandum to the Police Ministry.

National police spokesman Colonel Lindela Mashigo, however, told Independent Online an invitation had not been received, "such an invite could have been extended through [the rural safety committee]. TAU-SA knows this channel," Mashigo said. Reacting to the union's claims, Police Ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi said: "We learnt through the media that the minister was scheduled to attend the meeting. We condemn such cheap practices which do not help the cause of rural safety." Mnisi stressed that the government is committed to "fighting crime in whatever form it manifests itself, including farm killings."

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