South African Farm Attacks - Committee of Inquiry

Committee of Inquiry

A Committee of Inquiry into Farm Attacks was appointed in 2001 by the National Commissioner of Police. The purpose of the committee was to "inquire into the ongoing spate of attacks on farms, which include violent criminal acts such as murder, robbery, rape, etc, to determine the motives and factors behind these attacks and to make recommendations on their findings". The Committee used the definition for farm attacks as that supplied by the SAPS. The findings were published on 31 July 2003, and the main conclusions of the report were that:

• Perpetrators tended to be young, unemployed black men overwhelmingly from dysfunctional family backgrounds.
• Only a small proportion of attacks involved murder.
• Monetary theft occurred in 31.2% of the attacks, firearms were stolen in 23.0%, and 16.0% of farm attacks involved vehicular thefts. The committee noted that "there is a very common misconception that in a large proportion of farm attacks nothing is stolen" and "various items are stolen in by far the greater majority of cases, and, in those cases where nothing is taken, there is almost always a logical explanation, such as that the attackers had to leave quickly because help arrived."
• White people were the majority of the victims of these attacks, but others were also victims; in 2001 61% of farm attack victims were White. While this is disproportionate to the overall white population of South Africa (9.2%), it is in line with the demographics of the country's landowners, of which whites are a strong majority.
• The total number of reported attacks was about 2,500, while farmers’ organizations state the figure to be closer to 3,000.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) questioned a number of the report's findings, claiming that theft and desire for land did not adequately explain some of the attacks. Additionally, between 2005 and 2009, the rate of rural murders had increased by 25%.