by Ernst Roets
A 2016 provincial comparison by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for the financial years of 2010/2011 to 2015/2016 provides results with a slightly different conclusion. According to the SAPS data, most of the attacks occurred in North West during those six years, followed by Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Northern Cape is indicated as the province with the smallest number of farm attacks, as can be seen in Figure 10.
If the SAPS data are used to indicate farm murders, instead of farm attacks, Gauteng is listed as the province with the highest rate, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.
Figure 9: Farm attacks per province: 1990 to 20121
Figure 10: Farm attacks per province: 2010/2011 to 2015/2016, according to the SAPS2 with total number of attacks over period per province indicated.
North West drops to the fifth place, with the Northern Cape (the least populated province) still the province with the smallest number of incidents of all. If farm attacks are plotted on a map of South Africa, it becomes clear that certain areas are more vulnerable than others.
Figure 11: Farm murders per province: 2010/2011–2015/2016, according to the SAPS3
HOTSPOTS
The SAPS has identified a list of hotspots in their analysis of the 2015/2016 data on farm attacks. Stations where more than two incidents were reported in that year were identified as primary hotspots, while stations where two incidents were reported were identified as secondary hotspots. Hotspots were limited to only seven of the nine provinces, with the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape being excluded.
BREAKDOWN BY MONTH, WEEK AND TIME OF DAY
A more detailed analysis was done by the Committee of Inquiry into Farm Attacks on the basis of the data acquired by the committee. The report included a breakdown of monthly, daily and hourly distribution. The months in which the most attacks occur have been identified as March, May, July and October, while Friday has been identified as the day of the week on which most attacks occur. A breakdown according to the time of day indicates that the majority of attacks happen from 18:00 to 23:59.
Table 1: Stations identified by the SAPS as hotspots for farm attacks: 2015/20164
Table 2: Monthly distribution of farm attacks: 1998–2001 (CIAC)5
Figure 12: Monthly distribution of farm attacks: 1998–2001 (CIAC)6
Figure 13: Daily distribution of farm attacks: 2000–2001 (CIAC)7
Table 7: Analysis of murder victims by TAU SA22
Table 3: Daily distribution of farm attacks: 2000–2001 (CIAC)9
Figure 14: Hourly distribution of farm attacks: 2001 (CIAC)10
Table 4: Hourly distribution of farm attacks: 2001 (CIAC)11
CRIMES COMMITTED
A docket analysis by the CIAC on all farm attacks committed during 2001 found that armed robbery had been committed during 68,2% of farm attacks, murder during 14,5% and rape during 6,9% of these attacks.
Table 5: Most prevalent crimes committed, indicated as a proportion of all farm attacks in 200112
Figure 15: Most prevalent crimes committed, indicated as a proportion of all farm attacks in 200113
THE ATTACKERS14
On average there are three attackers per farm attack15 and in the vast majority of cases the attackers are youngsters in their teens, twenties or early thirties. However, farm attacks can be executed by groups as large as 15, as was the case when Christelle van der Merwe (39) and her two little girls were attacked on the farm near Tzaneen in Limpopo on 28 March 2017. She was severely beaten in her attempt to protect her children and lost her right eye because of the attack. Nedine (10) was beaten with a golf club. Christelle’s husband, Gert, was away at the time. ‘Every dad’s greatest fear came true for me. I wasn’t there when I should have protected my family. One feels so powerless,’ he said.16
Attackers are almost exclusively black males. (It is only in one case that the author is aware of that an Indian male was also involved in a farm attack.) An increased number of foreign nationals tend to be involved with these attacks, especially in the outlying districts. From the 41 case studies that my colleague Lorraine Claasen of the AfriForum Research Institute (ANI) conducted, 30 of the attackers were South African citizens and six were Zimbabweans. A total of 43,9% of the attackers communicated with their victims in English, and 31,7% in Afrikaans.
Typical weapons used during farm attacks include firearms (handguns and shotguns), knives, pangas (machetes), clothing irons, pitchforks and other gardening equipment, hammers and a variety of blunt and sharp objects.
Attackers come from the outside and forcibly gain access to the property. It appears that the majority of these attacks are organised and planned in detail. The property is spied on and monitored for days, weeks and often months before the actual attack takes place. The routines and habits of farmers and other residents are carefully observed and noted. Attackers then gain the advantage as victims are caught off guard or when they are at their most vulnerable – this element of surprise places the attackers in immediate control. In many of these attacks it is evident that the attackers were very well prepared, not only with regard to their planning, but in some cases also with regard to their equipment and information. When three farm attackers were spotted by a security camera on a farm near Sannieshof in 2015, one of the attackers could clearly be seen carrying a military-type signal jammer on his back. In another night-footage clip that was taken in pitch darkness, it is clear from the movement of the attacker that he knew exactly what the terrain looked like, including how he would have to move in which areas to minimise his chances of being detected. On one of the scenes that the Blood Sisters had to clean, the attacker had changed clothes during the attack, leaving his trousers on the scene. In his pocket a flash disk was found that contained photographs of the inside of the house.17
MODUS OPERANDI
Claasen developed a list of characteristics typically associated with farm attacks. Although there are several similarities and characteristics, each attack contains a combination of different dynamics, variables, circumstances, contexts and reactions or behaviour of the individual perpetrators as well as the victims. For example, the attackers cannot predict how the victim is going to react upon the initial realisation that he or she is in danger. The possibility that the victim may retaliate and fight back in self-defence should be a deterrent in itself, but this is not the case.18 This could be because of the fact that the attackers are in many cases very well prepared and that many of these attacks seem to be committed according to a predetermined plan, which may include contingency plans.
Particular characteristics that have been identified include:
Some attacks are more organised and planned than others. Firearms, tools to break into a house, wire or cables used to restrain victims, or escape vehicles that are taken with the perpetrators to the targeted properties indicate the offenders’ intent in premeditating and planning the attack in advance.
Perpetrators who have already selected their target often keep the property under surveillance for weeks in advance, sometimes attempting to gather information from farm labourers about the movements of the residents or the general layout of the farm and house.
There is usually more than one attacker who commits these crimes. Accomplices who can restrain victims, collect loot or keep watch allow for the attack to be completed in a shorter period of time. Despite this, we find that in many of these incidents, the attackers remain on the property for much longer than is necessary.
The initial contact with the victim can happen in various ways. Some attackers ambush their victims by either waiting at the farm gates or in the house when the unsuspecting victims arrive home. Others surprise their victims inside their homes by gaining access to the home through windows and doors. Attackers may also lure their victims from their house by pretending to want to buy cattle or products or look for jobs, or even by setting fire to the vegetation outside the home. This allows the attackers to overpower their victims, leaving them powerless and with phones or firearms ou
t of reach.
The victims of the attacks are not limited to farmers and their spouses or families, but may also include domestic workers and farm labourers.
Upon initial contact with the attackers, most victims are overpowered, assaulted and restrained. There are cases where the victims fought back inself-defence, often shooting the perpetrators and causing them to flee.
Victims are mostly restrained with shoe laces, telephone wires or electriccables that are tied around their hands and legs.
During these attacks victims may be harmed with several objects such as steel pipes, pangas (machetes), axes, sticks, shovels, pitchforks, broomsticks and knives or by kicking, beating, slapping or hitting them.
Victims are often threatened in order to gather information about the whereabouts of safes, the keys to these safes, money, firearms and other valuables. Threats to kill them or their spouses or to cause them serious physical harm, or pouring methylated spirits over the victims may force them to provide the information that the attackers demand.
Some victims are horrifically tortured by pulling out their nails, pouring boiling water over their bodies, burning them with clothes irons, breaking their fingers, dragging them behind moving vehicles or repeatedly hitting them with objects before they are ultimately murdered.
The attackers ransack the premises while looking for valuables and loot.
Female victims are sometimes raped during the attack.
Victims are shot, in some cases fatally, when they try to resist the attacks or to defend their families, while they shoot at the attackers and also – much too often – for no apparent reason at all.
The attackers’ loot, if any, may include firearms, money, vehicles, jewellery, electronic devices, clothes, shoes, food, alcohol or farming equipment.
Attackers either flee the scene on foot, in waiting escape vehicles or in the farmers’ own vehicles. It is concerning that stolen vehicles are in most cases left abandoned a short distance from the farm or property where the attack occurred.
A 2015/2016 SAPS docket analysis of the modus operandi of farm attackers can be summarised as portrayed in Table 6.
Table 6: Modus operandi during farm attacks, as identified by the SAPS19
THE VICTIMS20
A total of 5 818 victims are listed in Treurgrond, and their average age can be calculated as 53,3 years. A distribution of the ages of the victims clearly indicates that people above 50 are the most vulnerable, while children and young adults between 15 and 20 are the least vulnerable group.
In their research on farm attacks, the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU SA) also categorises the victims according to their identity. A breakdown by TAU SA of all the farm murders from 1990 to June 2015 indicates that farmers represent 64,5% of the victims, while immediate family represent 26,6%, workers 7,7% and visitors on farms 1,2%. Farmers and their immediate family therefore make up more than 90% of murdered victims, as indicated in Table 7 and Figure 17.
Figure 16: Division of victims (1990–2012) according to age groups21
Table 7: Analysis of murder victims by TAU SA22
Figure 17: Analysis of murder victims by TAU SA23
According to Claasen’s study, 65,9% of the victims did what they had been ordered to do, while 31,7% tried to confront the attackers.
About 6% of those attacked or murdered during these attacks were black, according to the popular current affairs TV show Carte Blanche.24
This, while according to figures provided by the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (AFASA), black people make up 12% of commercial farmers in South Africa.25
IMPACT ON THE VICTIMS26
The impact of a farm attack on the loved ones of murdered victims is much bigger than one tends to think, says Caty van der Merwe, head of AfriForum’s Trauma Unit. ‘There is an emotional impact … and a feeling of powerlessness and of fear together with that emotional impact. Then there is also a physical impact. In many cases the victims lose limbs. There is also a financial impact that causes financial trauma as a result of a loss of income and then obviously the loss of life.’27
Van der Merwe says that they do not encourage victims to try to take it day by day, but rather breath by breath.
‘My life has finished. One half of me sort of hopes that they would have pulled that trigger, so that I wouldn’t have to go through what I’m going through now,’ says Beth Bucher, who was attacked with her partner, Dan Knight (55), near Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal in October 2013. Knight was beaten to death by two attackers, aged 28 and 33,28 while Beth was forced to witness this. The attackers grabbed her head, pointing it in the direction of her husband, and forced her eyes open with their fingers. She continues: ‘And then they used 10 pound hammers and they used a huge monkey wrench. And they were beating Dan’s skull, beating it and beating it. I just saw the blood flying everywhere and then they smashed him right in his face with a big hammer. So it crushed his whole face and his teeth were smashed. Obviously his whole face just collapsed. And then they started kicking him with gumboots. I have flashes regularly. Not just now and again. It’s there all the time. I cry and I’m shaking and I’m terrified. I have such anger now, it’s frightening me. I’m not an angry person, but I’m so angry. I’m so angry.’ 29
‘My mother doesn’t want to live anymore,’ says Gawie Stols, brother of Kyle Stols (21), who was murdered on a farm near Bloemfontein in October 2017. ‘She isn’t prepared to continue. My father is devastated, he doesn’t speak. He’s broken.’30
‘It’s not only a man that lost his life. It was our breadwinner, it’s our lives, it’s our house, it’s our past, our future, everything, gone. Everything comes to a halt,’ exclaims Mariandra Heunis, widow of Johann Heunis (43), who was shot in front of his family near Pretoria in Gauteng.31 The couple had three little girls and Mariandra was about eight months pregnant when her husband was murdered. Her baby boy was born just a few days after his father’s funeral.32
Victims may still suffer emotionally in various ways for weeks, months and even years after an attack. Challenges may include struggling with basic everyday tasks such as eating and sleeping, and victims may feel too ashamed to discuss these problems with their family, friends and peers. Trying to cope alone will prolong the suffering and trauma further. On the other hand, accepting and relying on help from wherever it may come may increase a sense of community, belonging and self-worth.
‘It takes you about ten years to live normally again,’ says Herman de Jager, whose father, Piet (65), was murdered near Levubu in Limpopo in September 2003. ‘The first ten years were very difficult. They say after such an attack, most farms fail, production stops, it is halted. I also experienced it. You can’t drive at night anymore to switch the pumps off. We are irrigation farmers. We have pumps that have to be switched on or off at night.’33
Some victims may deny the magnitude of the events or withdraw completely. Victims may become physically ill and present with symptoms such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath when reliving the event, headaches, as well as a lack of or increased appetite, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping or an increased startle response. They may lose interest in activities that they enjoyed before and relationships with family and friends may suffer. In the long run, they may be diagnosed with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. The symptoms found among the victims after the attacks are depicted in Table 8.
Secondary victimisation may also occur in a court setting where victims must testify against alleged attackers. By testifying or attending court proceedings, victims may even experience a certain sense of relief in that the perpetrators will not be able to hurt other people in a similar manner. If criminals are given prison sentences, it may also give assurance that the specific offenders will not come back and victimise them again. Successful sentencing may further improve a diminished trust in the criminal justice system and provide the victims with relief that the proceedings are dealt with and completed. It will not, however, bring back t
heir loved ones or erase any memories of the attack.
Neighbours and peers of farm attack victims may themselves develop an intense fear of being victimised. Media reports and firsthand experiences recounted by victims may leave these individuals feeling anxious about their own safety and may cause them to alter their lifestyles.
Table 8: Symptoms found among victims after farm attacks34
A family friend of a murdered victim was quoted as saying that they are paralysed with fear because the attack on their friend left them feeling defenceless and exposed. In a certain sense, it may force individuals who live in rural areas to take responsibility for their own security. By taking precautions and being vigilant, individuals can adopt a proactive approach in preventing farm attacks.
‘How wrong is it that I have to teach a child of 10 and one of 8 years old to handle a firearm? Just in case, for that one day, when daddy or mommy is injured and they have to defend themselves,’ says Fanie Havenga, a farmer from Levubu. ‘I made steel cages and put them up outside the window, so that he (the attacker) cannot get in. A steel cage, still with burglar proofing on the windows also. It will give me the edge. I will hear when he tries to break the steel cage,’ adds Fanus Viviers, also from Levubu. ‘Before dark, we are in the house, then I check that all the doors are locked. I make sure my weapon is ready, that it is with me and that my wife’s weapon is with her.35
Children are often impacted in the most horrible ways by farm attacks. At about 20:00 on the evening of 30 April 2012, Venessa Stafleu (34) was murdered in front of her two children, aged 3 and 5. After having witnessed the death of their mother, the children ran across the farm, in the middle of the night, towards the main road. They were severely traumatised by the events.36