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When will the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, start taking the issue of rural safety seriously? The DA has made repeated calls for rural safety units to be established – yet the Minister has done nothing.

This week, the DA met with Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza, who has expressed his support for the establishment of rural safety units. This followed an increase in farm murders, which have now passed 3 000 since 1994. The DA welcomes the premier’s support for the establishment of these units.

The persistently high numbers of farm attacks and murders are the result of the Police Minister’s failure to establish an effective strategy to address rural safety. Although the government has developed a rural safety plan, we have yet to see it. Farm inhabitants have yet to see it. Indeed, SAPS members have yet to see it. The so-called “rural safety page” on the SAPS website continues to indicate that “updated information will be published soon. South Africans can no longer wait for ‘soon’, they need this plan and they need it now.

I have already written to Minister Mthethwa this year urging him to establish a specialised Border and Rural Safety division within the SAPS that will be tasked with targeting and combating crime in rural areas. Such a division would be staffed by highly trained Rural Reaction Units that could be deployed at short notice to identified crime hotspots. This division would be afforded specialised vehicles and equipment to deal with the unique challenges of policing in rural areas. It would also be supported by a dedicated crime intelligence capacity to help ensure that crime trends are spotted early, and as a result pre-emptive action can be taken to stop the level of criminal activity spiralling out of control.

I have not had the courtesy of a reply.

The DA’s National Spokesperson, Mmusi Maimane, has also sent a copy of the DA’s rural safety policy to the President. This is a blueprint for ensuring the safety of all rural South Africans. The policy calls for:

• A specialized Rural Safety Division within the police;
• a Rural Intelligence Centre to monitor criminal activity;
• rural reaction units to respond to crimes; and
• support for police reservists and Community Policing Forums (CPFs).

It is clear that the lack of a rural safety plan is having a massive impact on our rural community. The Minister needs to show that he takes rural safety seriously. These are the people who feed our nation – our farmers, our farm workers, staff at commercial farms, and emerging farmers – yet all are at threat because of their isolation, our lack of border control and the lack of political will to keep them safe.

I will be writing to the Minister and the new National Police Commissioner to ask where the rural safety plan is and what steps they will be taking to ensure the safety of the rural community.