By Joanie Bergh
Nearly R1.9 million has been awarded to farming communities across South Africa to fund rural security projects.
The Agri Securitas Trust Fund has joined forces with 29 farming associations in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, the Free State, Limpopo and Gauteng in an effort to enhance rural security.
Most of the funding requests from farming associations were for the installation or expansion of camera systems.
According to local communities, this is the most effective way to deter criminals and track down suspects.
“These systems cover large portions of rural areas, and their reach provides valuable information to the police in investigations into crimes. The camera systems benefit not only the farming community but also the entire rural community and businesses in towns,” says Cobus van Zyl, who chairs the Agri Securitas Trust Fund.
“Members of the community have expressed their frustration over what they perceive as inadequate action by the police to combat farm attacks and rural crime.
“Farmers and farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to crime, and the farming community is often subjected to violent farm attacks. Every effort must therefore be made to assist them in combating the wave of crime that affects daily operations and threatens lives.”
Christo van der Rheede, chief executive of Agri SA, says the organisation is grateful to the trust fund for its contribution, as well as for the donations from corporates and other private sector donors.
“We appeal to South Africans to contribute to the trust fund to fill this important gap. It is these donations that secure our farming communities and enable them to produce food for the people of our country,” he says.
“Currently, it appears that there is a weakening in the political will to address rural security more effectively through the rural security strategy. There is too much at stake to simply abandon the strategy.
“Beyond private investment in security measures by the farming community and the support provided by the trust fund, we can only hope that Bheki Cele, the Minister of Police, will soon demonstrate an urgency to announce the decisions of last year’s rural security council that are necessary to keep South Africa’s food-producing communities safe.”
