The Free State Agriculture (FSA), which represents farmers in the province, says there is no evidence of genocide aimed at wiping out Afrikaner farmers.
On Friday, the organisation’s crime analyst, Dr Jane Buys, said indiscriminate crime was a problem that affects farmers and their employees, irrespective of race.
When asked if she had found genocide to be the motive behind farm attacks in her province, Buys said: “No, I cannot respond to that one.”
“I don’t think so, but there is a targeted approach against the farming community,” she said.
The United Nations defines genocide as an act intended to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”.
When asked again if there is evidence of genocide, she said: “No, I don’t think so.”
In his invitation of Afrikaner farmers to immigrate to his country, United States President Donald Trump had repeatedly alleged that there was genocide taking place in South Africa.
In a media conference held at the White House before a private engagement with his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump produced loads of newspaper articles with pictures, which he said were evidence that there was genocide in South Africa.
However, it has since been revealed that at least one of the pictures had nothing to do with the Afrikaner farm killing, but was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Buys said black farmers were also the target of criminals.
“People are targeting farms because they are very remote and not near towns, and criminals have time to commit crimes on the farms.”
Buys said it also appeared that the farm attacks were merely robbery, which ended up with murders.
“If your motive is to rob, you just go and rob the farmer and you don’t kill his wife and his children,” she said.
She agreed that even in black communities, it happened that robbery victims end up being killed.
She said in some cases, the murders were perpetrated by labour disputes, and farm attacks were an act of retaliation against eviction from the farms.
She said there were also labour dispute-based attacks, although “a study found that the labour dispute is not the primary motive”.
“Sometimes it is a revenge because farmers are being targeted by Basotho who are taking revenge on them because the farmers are sending them back to their country and impounding their cattle,” said Buys.
She said workers were often killed during the farm attacks.
“The workers also kill the farmer, and therefore, in that area, you have some of the revenge attacks,” she said.
When asked if black farmers were also the target, Buys said: “Everyone is being targeted.
“I have done some analyses last year on the manifestation of farm attacks and murders in the Free State, and I say to you, 55% of the farm attacks are commercial farmers, and others are workers and people living on farms.”
Those who used the word genocide in the South African context did so because of an alarming number of farm attacks.
“If you have 400 or 500 farm attacks, which is what happened in the Free State over 10 years.
“People are selling their farms because of the stress of farm attacks and because it is not safe to farm,” she said.
She said between 2014 and 2024, there were 93 murders in 486 farm attacks at 77 farming communities.
This included 46 farmers, 40 farm workers, such as foremen, security guards, murdered, and six people living on farms and/or smallholdings were murdered.
She called on the government and the police to commit to their mandate to fight crime.
Although Buys did not support the idea of Afrikaners immigrating to America, she understands those who are leaving.
“I can fully understand that certain people are feeling threatened in the country by criminality.
“Threatened by the fact that they have not been helped by the government law enforcement agents and criminal justice system because we are struggling with the criminal justice system,” she said.
She said a survey conducted in June 2024 indicated that 96.6% of farmers in the Free State were using technology such as cameras and two-way radios to effectively combat crimes on their farms.
“77.3% of farmers are using private security companies to address criminality.
“30% of farmers mentioned that they each spent between R50,000 and R250,000 annually on technology to address criminality.
“20.1% of farmers are each losing annually between R100,000 to R250,000 due to crime,” she said.
