(4 minutes read)
· The South African white farmers took part in a protest rally in Pretoria, South Africa carrying flags and crosses, in response to the assaults and murders on farms in the rural parts of the country
· According to white farmers, a lot of atrocities are perpetrated against the white farmers
· The national statistics showed that in 2017, the white minority — which makes up 9% of the country, still had control over 72% of the agricultural land
The South African white farmers took part in a protest rally in Pretoria, South Africa carrying flags and crosses, in response to the assaults and murders on farms in the rural parts of the country.
The white protesters, led by Kallie Roux, wanted President Cyril Ramaphosa to stand up and firstly acknowledge that there are farm murders in South Africa and later to condemn them in strong words.
According to white farmers, a lot of atrocities are perpetrated against the white farmers. On October 2, a 21-year-old white farmer was found hanging from a pole near Paul Roux. His corpse had visible evidence of torture. This triggered protests by around 3,000 angry white farmers. Post-apartheid racial tensions owing to agricultural land distribution disparities between white and black farmers have been a longstanding national issue of Johannesburg.
It is important to have an insight on the historical underpinning of this issue. In 1994, there was a farmland distribution objective, which stipulated 30% of white-owned farmland to the disenfranchised black farmers to address the racial inequality. But the national statistics showed that in 2017, the white minority — which makes up 9% of the country, still had control over 72% of the agricultural land. In 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa communicated his intention to amend the constitution to accelerate the uncompensated expropriation of arable land and its redistribution to the black majority. This was an unpopular decision to the white minority. Which in turn and added to the existing racial tension in the country.
