A total of 62 farm murders were reported in the past financial year in South Africa‚ according to the latest crime statistics released in Parliament on Tuesday.
The dead included farm owners and farm workers. Police said they had recorded 33 farm robberies‚ six incidents of attempted murder and two incidents of rape.
Eleven incidents were reported on Gauteng farms‚ including a dozen murders.
The North West province recorded the second-highest number of attacks‚ resulting in nine deaths.
Mpumalanga had the third-highest number of reported farm attacks‚ including eight deaths in eight attacks.
The Eastern Cape and Western Cape ranked much lower. Each province recorded three farm attacks. Six people were killed in the two provinces.
Scores of farmers took to the streets in 2017 to raise awareness about farm attacks. TimesLIVE reported that around the time of the protest action‚ elderly vegetable farmer Bokkie Potgieter was found hacked to death in his bakkie near his farm in Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal.
Naledi Shange -TimesLIVE
