2013 the darkest year since 2005?

After the first month of the year it appears as if 2013 is heading to be the darkest year in terms of farm attacks and farm murders since 2005.

During January 2013, 8 people died in 17 attacks on farms. According to TAU SA's statistics most incidents occurred in Gauteng . Five people were murdered in 8 attacks in the province. The unenviable second place is held by the Free State , where 3 people died in 6 attacks, two attacks occurred in Mpumalanga and one in Natal .

These figures indicate a drastic increase compared to January 2012, when 5 people were murdered in 11 attacks. Eventually during the whole of 2012, 51 people died in 141 attacks.

If the tendency from January 2012, as it eventually realized at the end of that year, should be applied to 2013, based on the January figures,  82 people could be murdered in 218 attacks on farms this year, warns Mr Henry Geldenhuys, Deputy President of TAU SA and Chairman of the Union's Safety and Security Committee. "It would be the highest rate since 2005, when 115 people were killed on farms.

"TAU SA is therefore not in vain concerned about farm attacks. In the light thereof it remains inconceivable that the Minister of Police and the Commissioner of Police have still not replied to TAU SA's urgent request for discussions about this matter a year ago. The last time something was heard from the Minister was a  public tirade against TAU SA a ??few weeks ago during a press conference, but during which he still gave no indication of what he plans to do about this unacceptable state of affairs," said Mr Geldenhuys.

"TAU SA's members want to be part of the solution to this problem. There are many suggestions that we would like to discuss with the Minister in order to offer our help, but then he should grasp the opportunity for such discussions with both hands instead of ignoring us or discrediting us in the media.

"With the information of the current trend at our disposal, farmers are warned to reassess their security measures very urgently. That should also include the evaluation of the reliability of employees, especially where labour unrest is a potential problem and where farmers have already suffered severe damages," said Mr Geldenhuys.

Statement issued by Mr Henry Geldenhuys, Deputy President of TAU SA, February 1 2013

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter