Thousands of signatures on DA’s letter to President shows those living in rural areas have had enough
8 October 2020
Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP.
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) petition attached to our open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa has received almost 55 000 signatures to date. This petition, launched in July, called for the President to apologize for his untrue and hurtful remarks in a 2018 interview, when he denied that farm murders were taking place in South Africa. We called on him to take urgent action regarding the perpetual fear and danger our rural men and women live and work in as they grow the very food we eat.
It cannot be that the Government and Parliament continue to turn a blind eye to the plight of farmers, farmworkers, their parents, wives, and children who suffer cruel, senseless and often deadly torture at the hands of criminals.
It cannot be that an 80-year old woman is attacked on her farm in Zastron by a prisoner released by the Minister of Justice. She was left for dead across the border in Lesotho.