The brutal murder of 28-year-old farmer Itumeleng Lengana in Sonop, outside Brits in North West’s Madibeng Local Municipality, has left me deeply shaken – and angry.
By Lebogang Mashala, editor at African Farming
It is an anger that is difficult to put into words because, although I never met Itumeleng or had the opportunity to speak to him, his death feels painfully close to home. I farm in the Brits area, just a few kilometres from where this young farmer was building his future. His story could so easily have been that of another young farmer I know, another son, another brother, another young South African trying to make a living from the land, myself included.
Instead, his life was brutally cut short.
We must draw a line
What makes this tragedy even more painful is the sense that we are becoming increasingly accustomed to violence in rural areas. Farmers, farm workers and rural communities are expected to accept crime, intimidation and lawlessness as part of the landscape.
We should not.
We must draw a line.
The rule of law cannot be something we invoke selectively when it suits us. It is the foundation on which a functioning society is built. When criminals believe they can act with impunity, when communities lose confidence in the ability of the state to protect them, and when lawlessness becomes normalised, it is not only individual lives that are placed at risk – the very fabric of our society begins to unravel.
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Rural South Africa deserves honest answers
Itumeleng’s murder has also brought renewed attention to the difficult and interconnected problems confronting rural South Africa: crime, illegal mining, undocumented immigration, insecure land and weak enforcement.
These are complex issues and they cannot be reduced to simplistic slogans or convenient political narratives. But neither should our determination to confront them be weakened by political sensitivity.
We owe rural communities honest answers.
We owe them visible policing, effective investigations and a justice system that works. We owe farmers and farm workers the basic security required to do their jobs without living in fear. And we owe young people like Itumeleng an environment in which choosing agriculture is seen as an opportunity, not a potentially fatal occupation.
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When rural crime threatens food security
There is another dimension to this tragedy that should concern every South African: food security.
Every farmer who is attacked, driven from the land or discouraged from investing in agriculture represents more than an individual economic loss. It weakens the productive capacity of our agricultural sector. It undermines rural economies, threatens jobs and, ultimately, puts our country’s food security and sovereignty at risk.
South Africa cannot afford to lose young farmers.
We desperately need a new generation of agricultural entrepreneurs who are prepared to invest in the land, create employment and produce the food that feeds our nation. We cannot, on the one hand, speak passionately about transforming agriculture and bringing more young people into the sector while, on the other, we allow rural insecurity to make farming increasingly untenable.
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This is bigger than farmers
This is not an argument for privileging farmers above other South Africans. Rural crime affects entire communities. Farm workers, farm owners, their families and neighbouring villages are all vulnerable.
Every rural life lost to violence matters.
That is precisely why we must resist the temptation to turn tragedies such as Itumeleng’s murder into another political football.
A young man is dead.
A family is grieving.
The farming community is traumatised.
And a country should be asking how we allowed it to happen – and, more importantly, what we are going to do to ensure it does not happen again.
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Itumeleng deserved better
I find myself returning to the thought that Itumeleng was only 28. At an age when many young people are still figuring out their careers and their place in the world, he had chosen to build something from the soil. He was producing lucerne and vegetables and trying to make a future through agriculture.
That matters.
His life mattered.
And his death should matter beyond the headlines and condolences that will eventually fade from our news feeds.
As an agricultural publication, African Farming has always believed in telling the stories of farmers who are building businesses, creating jobs and contributing to South Africa’s agricultural future. But we also have a responsibility to speak when that future is threatened.
Today, I am speaking out of grief. But I am also speaking out of anger.
We cannot continue to accept lawlessness as inevitable. We cannot allow rural communities to feel abandoned. And we cannot expect agriculture to carry the burden of feeding the nation while failing to create the conditions in which farmers and farm workers can live and work safely.
Itumeleng deserved better.
So do the thousands of South Africans who wake up every morning and go to work on farms across this country.
The rule of law is not optional.
It is where the line must be drawn.
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