DEAR Editor,-
The Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent condemnation of farm murders in South Africa.
While it has taken many years for government to finally acknowledge and then condemn these atrocities, the DA believes that this is the first small step needed to protect farmers, farm workers and rural communities.
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In light of the president’s acknowledgement of this scourge in parliament, the DA in KZN has written to the province’s MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Bongi Sithole-Moloi, and KZN Community Safety MEC Mxolisi Kaunda, to request that they work with us to improve rural safety by implementing the following interventions as a matter of urgency:
– Allocation of funding from the 2019/2020 financial year budget to supply farmers with citizen band radios;
– Establishment of a provincial rural safety directorate under SAPS;
– Establishment of dedicated rural safety units within SAPS;
– Recording of farm attacks and farm murders separately from other crimes, and
– Placing pressure on national counterparts to reintroduce a commando-type system.
All citizens have the right to feel safe in their homes and the DA are willing to work with government to try and bring some respite to communities under siege.
Government has the power to intervene in the high levels of violent crime in rural areas and on farms.
What is needed is the political resolve to address this issue. The question is, do the MECs have the political will to keep our people safe?
CHRIS PAPPAS, MPL
DA KZN Spokesperson on Agriculture and Rural Development
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