SAPS unable to account for farm attack statistics
26 February 2015
I will be writing to the Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, and Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, asking them by what date plans for specialised rural safety units, long promised to South Africans, will actually be rolled out.
The DA is concerned about the South African Police Service's (SAPS) commitment to rural safety following their inability to account for farm attack statistics in Parliament's Police Portfolio Committee yesterday.
While SAPS claimed that serious rural crime decreased by 41% from 2011/12 to 2013/14, they were unable to account for actual farm murders and attacks as the statistics for rural crime are no longer broken down into specific categories by SAPS.
Farm attacks and murders, as a category of rural crime, in fact appear to be on the rise according to a recent Institute for Security Studies (ISS) report.