The sixty-eight year old farmer and his wife arrive home from attending to business in town. It is late afternoon. On entering their house, they found the domestic worker tied loosely with a rope to a chair in the kitchen. The iron on the ironing board was on as she was overpowered while ironing the families’ clothes. They are shocked and immediately walk over to untie her. They are rudely interrupted by a mob of five intruders appearing from their hiding places, sticks and knives in hand.
They order the farmer and his wife to lie down on the living room floor. Not obeying quickly enough, the leader of the mob hit the farmer on the head with a stick. Two others pull the wife down, tearing her clothes from her body and start raping her. For protesting, the farmer gets his teeth kicked out. His hands are tied behind his back with wire.
When the farmer refuses to tell them the code to the safe, they use the hot clothes iron on his wife’s face and body to convince him. Kicking and hitting them for an hour, the mob’s bloodthirst is finally satisfied. They slash the farmer’s throat and let him bleed to death. The wife is already dying. With a final kick to the head she breathes her last. The mob leaves with cell phones, laptops, cash and jewelry from the safe, and the family car.
One got arrested, tried for robbery and spent two years in prison. Another was arrested and released for lack of evidence.
On a farm hundreds of miles away, a family is just waking up early morning and start to prepare for the day. It is eerily quiet, but nobody notices. Suddenly a dog yelps in the distance and then it is quiet again. The farmer gets an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He grabs his gun and walks out the back door. He doesn’t make it to the shed five meters away. A bullet finds his head and ends his life. Before the family can react, eight intruders storm the house shooting as they go. They fatally wound the wife, kill one son while two girls, one fourteen, the other nine years old, manage to escape to a bedroom where they lock themselves in.
Another son, twelve years old, tries to hide, but is spotted. One intruder grabs him by the arms and holds him down. Two attackers follow the girls, break down the door and pull them out by their hair. The boy is forced to watch his sisters getting raped, tortured and killed. He then gets dragged to the bathroom where the tub was filled with scalding hot water. The boy’s head is pushed down into the hot water. It takes a while for him to die. Every member of the household dead, the intruders ransack the house, take all the valuables they can lay their hands on and left with the farmer’s truck.
In another part of the country an elderly man, seventy-seven years old, and his wife, seventy-four, is having coffee on the front porch after lunch. A car approaches the house, stops a few meters away and two men get out.
“Afternoon, Sir. We heard you are selling sheep. We’ve come to have a look. We’d like to buy a few sheep,” the driver of the car says.
“Fine, let me show you,” he says as he gets up from his chair. The wife excuses herself and goes to the kitchen. The companion follows her and asks for a drink of water. While she is pouring him a glass of water, he overpowers her, ties her up with electric cable and hits her on the head and torso with an iron rod. Then he rapes her and kills her.
The farmer leads the way to the sheep, but before he is halfway there, his scull is cracked by a blow with a metal object. The driver dragged him to the kitchen where he was forced to watch the raping and killing of his wife. He gets kicked in the ribs and left for dead while the “sheep buyers” search the house for cash and valuables.
Hours later the farmer and his dead wife were discovered by a neighbour. The farmer lived to tell the story, but died in hospital two days later. The perpetrators were arrested and released on bail of R200.
No one deserves to die such horrible death. No one deserves the barbaric torture some people have endured.
These are not normal crimes as the president of the country and the chief of police eagerly declare on those rare occasions they admit there has been a farm murder.
The accounts of the few survivors leave no doubt that these horrendous deeds were done by uncivilised barbarians with no regard or respect for life. This is not the work of normal people. It is the work of demon possessed savages. Black peace-loving citizens are shocked by these things.
The farmers finally have had enough. They held peaceful motorcycle protests for which they were rewarded with police brutality, getting dragged off their bikes, assaulted, threatened and shot at.
More peaceful protests followed that ended peacefully. No mess, no looting, no one hurt. Along a country road for about a two mile stretch, white crosses, almost a meter apart, both sides of the road, were displayed, for every farmer killed since the ANC government came into power twenty-six years ago. Being a farmer in South Africa has become the most dangerous occupation in the world. Black farmers do get killed as do black workers, but whites are especially targeted. The vast majority of farmers murdered in a savage way, are pale skinned. Rarely the murderers are arrested and far fewer get convicted.
The news about attacks on farmers in South Africa is being spread all over the world, which is a good thing. The world is beginning to take notice. In spite of the SA President telling everyone he is not aware of any farm attacks, people all over the world are giving their opinion and their farmers are standing in solidarity with the farmers of South Africa. Rallies have been organised and televised.
However, rallying and protesting have not accomplished anything. The attacks and murders continue and even escalate. Farmers are the people who produce our food. No farmers, no food. The attacks and murders have to stop, and soon. In protest against these murders, some commercial farmers have already refused trucks from one of our largest chain food stores, Checkers, to enter their farms when they came to collect the daily fresh produce. This happened at least once. Imagine what it would be like if all farmers send their produce to pig farms instead of the food chain stores. Not everybody in the nation eats pork.
Lately some farmers have taken the risk of fighting back. More than one attacker have been shot and killed. More than one farmer has been arrested for murder in these cases. The turning point came when a twenty-one year old farm foreman was murdered and tied to a pole. When the murders had their bail hearing, a large number of local farmers gathered at the court house, trying to overturn the transport vehicle and then set a police van alight. One farmer was arrested and charged with public violence and attempted murder.
This was not taken well in the light of what the leader of the EFF Party is getting away with. He openly instigates violence against all white people. His followers riot for any reason they can think up, looting, breaking everything in sight, burning buildings, destroying businesses, severely hurting innocent passers-by and leaving a filthy mess behind. He gets away with it because he is the leader of what seems to be the ANC’s pet-party, the EFF, (Economic Freedom Fighters).
Now let’s have a look at the other side of the coin. Unfortunately it is true that in some regions racism is still alive. It is true that a percentage of farmers do not treat their workers well. I have first-hand knowledge of farmers who mistreat their workers, overwork them, underpay them and deny them human dignity. I have seen how a farmer treats his workers inhumanely. I have heard farmers brag about it. I know for sure that there are farmers who see themselves as gods, looking down on everyone, especially city dwellers, in spite of how some Greek philosophers see them. I do not agree with everything ancient Greek philosophers had to say, but much of it does has merit.
I have first-hand knowledge about two young farmers driving home from the local pub. Drunk and in search for some fun, they came across a farm worker on horseback on his way home from some errand he had run for his employer. The two drunkards deliberately accelerated and hit the horse with their truck. The horse had to be put down but the rider was killed instantly.
According to the employer this worker was the best, most trustworthy of all her workers on the farm. That was why he was allowed to ride the best horse on the farm. Now both were lost and for what? For two worthless jokers who targeted an innocent farm worker for their entertainment. At least they had the decency to admit their wrongdoing, but their few years of jail-time did not serve justice.
I cannot speak for people of other cultures. I can only give account of my observations about what is happening in my own culture, among my own people. Traditionally we are a people who served the living God, Creator of all that exists. As we prospered, our focus shifted from our Provider to our accomplishments. No longer do we recognise our dependence on God, we pat ourselves on the back for all the good things we have acquired. When things go wrong, of course, we blame God for not preventing disaster, because He can. When things go right, we take the credit.
With prosperity and wealth, accompanied by arrogance, we became bored with church, faith matters, and started looking to other religions. We needed a challenge. We needed to believe we can earn eternal life. Just like we have earned our wealth, earning eternal life is much more appealing than just believing it is a gift from God that can never be awarded, no matter how diligently we work for it.
No amount or effort, no sacrifice is big and pure enough to pay our eternal debt. It had to be paid with the blood of the only sinless man who ever dwelled the earth: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. All we have to do, is believe and accept the gift. But we have become too proud. We don’t want a gift, we want a reward for our own efforts. We want the medal for our own accomplishments. Taking a gift is too easy.
And so the Afrikaner nation has turned their backs on their Father. They run after other gods. sport, gambling, entertainment, drunkenness, immoral life styles making brothels thrive, living together without the commitment of marriage. Worst of all is embracing eastern religions, new age and teaching our children that witchcraft is all right by encouraging them to read Harry Potter books and watch the movies.
Does God not warn us in His Word over and over again that disaster will strike if we turn away from Him, the only One who loves us unconditionally? His invitation still stands, in spite of our rebellion against Him. He still invites us to turn back to Him with the promise that He will turn back to us and deliver us from all our trouble. Many farmers have accepted the invitation. Many still have to do it. It is our only hope for a peaceful future.
Let’s hope all farmers, all peace-loving citizens, no matter their colour or social standing will get in unity and start worshipping the God of the universe, our Father who loves us and longs for an intimate father-child relationship with us whom He has accepted as His children through the blood of His son Jesus, the Anointed One.
