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As yet another farm murder of a Kwa-Zulu Natal couple makes headlines across the country, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape will, through the provincial Court Watching Briefs Unit, ramp up our support and assistance to victims of farm attacks and their families, to ensure that justice is served in relation to each and every farm murder within the province’s borders.

In this regard, I attended the bail hearing of the accused in the murder trial of Danie, Breggie and Elzabie Brand, in Hartswater last week. The DA notes that the state opposed bail to one of the accused and further postponed proceedings to Thursday, 3rd of September.

The DA will continue following the court proceedings and the police investigations to check that the local South African Police Services (SAPS) is doing its part to secure a conviction of the perpetrators. We feel very strongly that brutal murderers must not be allowed to return to our streets. At the same time, we do not want grieving families to be left in the lurch by an incapacitated police service and justice system, that more often than not, leaves crimes unsolved and families without closure.

The Brand family murder did not just rob the victims of their lives but they have also deprived the entire Hartswater and farming community of their sense of safety. This can be seen in the fact that the community is still reeling in shock and that they have become fearful for their own lives. In this regard, the DA will also continue to champion a better resourced, equipped and capacitated police service that adopts a proactive and a not a reactive stance towards crime.

The people of Hartswater and the Northern Cape deserve a police service, and community policing initiatives that are fully backed and supported by the authorities, that can once again restore the community’s sense of security. Above all, they deserve to feel safe in their own homes and on their own farms once again.

Issued by The DA