Diko said: “This is what the President (Ramaphosa) was dismissing and we reject the notion that he lied. Crime happens in all our communities including townships‚ rural areas‚ farms and suburbs.”
She further explained: “It is very unfortunate that anyone would want to deliberately distort the President’s remarks which were in direct response to ‘large scale killing of farmers’‚ a characterisation everyone knows holds no truth in South Africa.”
Ramaphosa told Bloomberg that Trump’s tweet was “clearly misinformed”.
“Whoever gave him that information was clearly wrong.”
Ramaphosa’s remarks have ruffled AfriForum’s feathers. They said on Thursday they were going to send the loved ones of farm murder victims across the Atlantic as part of the next phase of their awareness campaign about farm murders and expropriation without compensation.
According to the latest crime statistics‚ there were 62 recorded farm murders‚ 33 house robberies‚ six attempted murders and two rapes on farms in 2017/18. This pales in comparison with the 57 South Africans murdered daily.
“AfriForum wants to provide farm attack victims and their families with the opportunity to tell their stories to opinion formers‚ politicians‚ government representatives and the media in Washington‚” AfriForum said.