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The allegations of the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, that most farm attacks result from wage disputes between employees and employers stem from his left thumb, according to Dirk Hermann, the deputy general secretary of Solidarity and the chairperson of the Solidarity Movement’s publishing company, Kraal Uitgewers.

Today in a speech at the conference of the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU SA) in Pretoria, Hermann stated in a scathing attack that the minister’s commentary about farm attacks and its relationship with wage disputes is statistically ‘nonsense’ that he had made up.

‘In the 2003 report of the commission of inquiry into farm attacks, appointed by the national police commissioner, it was found that only 1,6% of the farm attacks that had occurred between 1998 and 2001 were clearly motivated by labour issues,’ Hermann said. ‘Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, labour economist and Agriculturist of the Year, wrote in the first edition of Kraal Uitgewers’s book, Treurgrond that this percentage was 1,25%.’

According to Hermann, the minister is creating an unfair climate of justification for farm murders based on ‘thumb sucking’. ‘If your thumb is your source, you owe South Africa and the farmers a correction. If you have statistical proof, make the statistics about farm murders available to us,’ Hermann continued.

The first edition of Treurgrond that appeared in 2011 is now being updated and will include new research. About 500 new attacks, that were not part of the previous edition, have already been added. This edition will be more visual and will include, among other things, artworks dealing with farm attacks by the artist Pauline Gutter. The book is expected to be released before the end of the year.

Hermann further stated that government’s lack of political will to do something about farm attacks is one of the most prominent obstacles in the fight against farm murders. ‘The TAU does wonderful work in this regard and the Solidarity Movement, which AfriForum falls under, has launched a comprehensive plan to stop farm murders. But what does the recipe against farm murders lack? The answer is the political will of the government. Government is cold about farm murders.’