New forms of debate are needed

South Africans will have to engage in new forms of debates and form new strong partnerships in order to address and ultimately eradicate the scourge of farm attacks in this beloved country, says Jan Hofmeyr, director of the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, in the last article of our series about the subject of farm attacks.

Hofmeyr in an interview also warned that there is increasing polarisation in the national debates on farm attacks.  Creating a solution for this problem would require new inclusive forms of debates.

Stakeholders in opposing camps, across social and economic policy spectrums are becoming increasingly combative. And for the same reason, the situation is becoming increasingly untenable.

South Africans in all spheres should have done more to avert situations like this, where they seem to be driven to the brink.

“Economic injustice, of course, represents our society’s most pronounced fault-line, but the origins and consequences of its deep structural roots cannot possibly be eradicated overnight.

“In the absence of quick-fix solutions, we need to find new ways of talking to each other and to invest in existing institutions that hold the potential to expedite more inclusive forms of social transformation,” he says.

Hofmeyr says South Africa would have to return to the inclusive forums of debates that existed between the ANC and the NP prior to 1994 which preceded the dawn of a new dispensation.

The problem is that the people who share the table to discuss the issues, often share the same ideas and views. In discussing the farm attacks, the country needs more stakeholders from opposite poles to debate the issues.

If they share the table without anybody pulling rank in terms of position or seniority, they would be able to better understand one another’s anxieties and the emotive content of the attacks or the political history of struggle songs.

Marginalised

Tony Ehrenreich, provincial secretary of Cosatu for the Western Cape in another interview claimed that the marginalisation and poor treatment of farm workers by farmers contribute to the unstable and volatile climate in rural areas.

Recently a farmer in Philippi killed a worker with his bare hands. Farmers try and pay their workers a bare minimum. If there are more equality and better housing conditions, the whole environment in rural areas will improve, he added.

“To a large extent, the cycle of abuse and violence is driven by the conduct of farmers. For example, the dop-system is still a legacy of apartheid.

“What we need, is a fundamental mind-shift from famers. There is a need for partnerships between farmers and farm workers,” he said. Empowering workers by making them minority financial partners in the profits will contribute to the improved safety in the rural areas, as workers then have an interest in what happens on the farm.

A national indaba on farm attacks could make a contribution to addressing the situation, but only if it focuses on the real issues and is honest. It should also focus on intolerance and racism amongst groups, and the level of inequality that still exists in rural areas, he added.

The trade union Solidarity, however is on record for challenging claims like those put forward by Ehrenreich, saying that only 1.25% of the 2 300 farm murders during the past 20 years are attributable to poor labour relationships between workers and farmers. Many of the murders were committed by common criminals.

Solidarity has also questioned the political will and true commitment of the government to address farm murders, saying a pandemic like this needs to be higher up on the political agenda of the government.

Dr Pieter Mulder, deputy-minister of agriculture and leader of the Freedom Front Plus, has warned that generalisations which are made as if the relationships between commercial farmers and their workers are poor, are totally wrong and based upon propaganda and assumptions.

New partnerships

André Botha, head of Agri SA’s rural and safety committee, says their members are happy to work with the South African Police Service (SAPS) in sector policing initiatives and insists they can in this way deter farm attacks.

"With the sector policing system, our involvement in the rural safety plan - and the fact that we are involved in the reservist system - just keeps us that one pace ahead."

Botha also expressed his gratitude to the government for the Rural Safety Strategy.

Recently he told the Carte Blanche TV-programme: "We are very happy with the political will that has been executed by the government, we think that the minister of police is doing an excellent job, and he has  our full support."

Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of police, said the SAPS launched the Rural Safety Strategy late in 2010 and now need to make sure that this strategy draws in farm workers, commercial and small farmers, as well as local rural communities themselves. Despite government's new Rural Safety Strategy, many communities still choose to undertake their own security, especially in Gauteng where 38% of reported farm attacks take place.

And, it is exactly the partnerships between farmers and the SAPS, between the food producers and the farm workers as well as with private security firms that could form the basis of a safer rural environment.

B.P. Greyling, farmer of the year in 2011 and a food producer in the Wakkerstroom-area in Mpumalanga, told Landbouweekblad, that he has doubled his herd of sheep since 1994 in spite of the fact that 360 000 jobless people dwell within a radius of 30 kilometres of his farm. (Source: Landbouweekblad, 23 December 2011).

He has formed partnerships with the SAPS and has also empowered his workers and trained them in  intelligence-gathering. He has also written an area safety plan that currently serves as the official security plan for the whole of the Wakkerstroom-area.

Currently, he and 15 of his workers are active as police reservists. Thanks to his partnership with the SAPS, his safety plan for the area and his excellent relationship with his workers as well as their diligent conduct, Greyling doesn’t need to lock his diesel tank, workshop or any other building on his farm.

“If something gets lost in an isolated incident, everybody stands together to  follow up leads and arrest the guilty party,” he says.

There is no quick-fix to the farm attacks in South Africa, no easy solutions and no simple formula to address the problems facing food producers.

Yet, an inclusive, wide-ranging national indaba as well  as the strengthening of the partnerships between the farmers, their associations, employees and the SAPS might go some way to improve the turbulence in rural areas.