Another gruesome farm murder

It is a sad day when criminals try to get rid of their evidence. This is the reaction of TAU SA's President, Mr. Ben Marais, to the gruesome murder of a farmer on his farm in the Reitz area. The farmer's body was found in a shallow grave on the farm, and his wife was assaulted and hospitalized.

"The cruelty of the murders are already well known and leaves any civilized human disgusted," said. Marais. "Now the terrorists are trying to get rid of their evidence in this case the body of their victim."

Mr. Marais said that the attacks on farmers are at least equal to the murders of policemen. "If we take into account that this year about 50 policemen were killed out of a police force of 156 000 members, and about 30 farmers were killed from a population of 36 000, it is clear that this ratio showed the farming community to be a greater risk than police officers.

Every farmer who is killed, has resulted in reduced production. Last week Statistics South Africa announced that South Africa's population has exceeded the 50 million notch. Those people must be fed by a declining farmer community who are gradually wiped out. "

Mr. Marais once again called on the government to declare farm murders as a special category of crime and to establish a special investigative unit on farm attacks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Marais also warned farmers to be extremely careful with the employment of labor, as the alleged perpetrators in the Reitz case, apparently at some point worked for the farmer, and therefore were exactly aware of what was going on at the farm.

"Government also has a duty to warn the workers that farmers cannot continue employing people and that they will start replacing workers by eg. mechanisation if it appears that farmers are attacked and killed by their own workers.

Statement issued by TAU SA, August 1 2011

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