More farm workers than farmers murdered in KZN in last 20 years

More farm workers than farmers have been attacked and murdered in KwaZulu-Natal in the past two decades.

Provincial community safety MEC Bheki Ntuli revealed this in a written response to questions from the DA regarding violent crimes on KwaZulu-Natal farms.

Ntuli revealed that there had been 206 murders recorded since 2000. Of these, 119 were farm workers and 87 were farmers. During this period, 752 farm attacks had been registered, with 380 of them being attacks on farm workers.

According to the DA, of those 380 cases almost a quarter involved rape.

The full response to the questions is available here.

The party said the figures show that urgent interventions were needed to stem the tide of violence against rural and farming communities.

“The DA is deeply concerned by this staggeringly high figure, which paints a bleak picture for female farm workers. Equally alarming is that of all cases reported since 2000, only 21 out of 88 ended in conviction. This worrying statistic is an indictment on justice and the fight against gender-based violence,” said Chris Pappas, the party's spokesperson on agriculture and rural development.

Of the 752 farm attack cases, only 56 have resulted in a conviction. A third of these (251) took place in the Ugu district.

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