PHUTI MOSOMANE
OVERWHELMING number of delegates at the DA congress have voted for the establishment of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into farm murders, urging President Cyril Ramaphosa and Parliament to take action and increase rural safety.
“The Democratic Alliance calls on the President of the Republic of South Africa to appoint a Commission of Inquiry in terms of Section 84 (f) of the RSA to investigate farm murders in South Africa and to make recommendations to Parliament to increase rural safety,” said the DA’s outgoing Federal Chairperson and Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Ivan Meyer, who proposed the motion.
Meyer said farm murders were on the rise in South Africa but there was little progress in the successful prosecution of the cases.
“Farm murders and attacks pose a direct threat towards food security. Farm murders and criminal attacks on farm workers must be considered economic crimes and a threat to economic growth,” Meyer added.
A delegate said congress must force government to look at the brutality of farm murders.
“More and more of these murders are becoming brutal and violent. There are 700 murders in South Africa over the last year,” a delegate said.
In adopting the resolution, DA Congress declared that job losses are as a result of crimes committed on farms in rural areas.
The Congress reiterated that the South African government has failed to acknowledge the gravity of the impact of farm crimes, including economic losses and the effects of farm murders and attacks.
INSIDE POLITICS
