Monday 5 July 2010

The lull before the storm?

There seems to have been a significant lull in the number of farm attacks whilst the world's cameras are focused on South Africa, it is now over three weeks since I have been notified of a fatal attack, and there have only been a limited number of non-fatal attacks, I do not recall such a long period elapsing between deaths in the last couple of years.

As, prior to the world cup, there was on average two killings a week, some may find this suspicious, and feel it could suggest that there is political direction behind the carnage.

This suspicion may be strengthened by the fact that a number of black South African policemen are currently in custody accused of involvement in farm attacks.

Abraham Sesing and Hendrik Eksteen acted to save their employer

In the latest incident a 36 year old black South African policeman has been arrested and accused of driving the get away car in an attempted farm attack in the early hours of Sunday morning, that attack targeted disabled 80 year old farmer Toby Van den Heever and was thwarted by two of his employees one black and one white (pictured above) who confronted four armed men attempting to tear down the security gate of the homestead's kitchen door.

This brings me to another issue which I have hesitated about posting, as I do not wish to cause undue alarm, however, I think it is important to report what I am hearing. There are rumours that an outbreak of racial violence is planned for after the world cup, commencing around the 12t of July. Censor Bugbear has reported on a series of xenophobic threats here and here, this mostly relates to the threats of targeted violence by South African blacks against black immigrants, similar to those which happened in 2008, however, I have also heard that threats have been made against whites as well (if anyone knows more about this please let me know).

There may be nothing to these rumours, it will not be the first time that such such stories have circulated. However, given that there will almost certainly be a lot of resentment following the lack of success by African teams in the tournament, and the growing likelihood that a predominantly white team will win, I would strongly recommend that those living in South Africa continue to take great care of their safety and that of their loved ones.

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Hat tip: Dina

6 comments:

Celtic Warrior said...

Hi Sarah,

When I asked my Malawian gardener about reported attacks on Malawians he informed me that attacks are expected after the World Cup finishes.

From Cape Town

Macaw said...

We do community patrols in our area. During the wc we had on average 1 attempted break-in a week. This past weekend we had 3.

Things are picking up again. Went to get additional ammo for my firearm and believe it or not, ammo stocks are running low.

Anonymous said...

Please note that even the main stream media are reporting the likelihood of attacks:

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-06-29-sahrc-keeps-eye-on-xenophobia-reports

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1156687

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SAHRC-prepared-for-xenophobia-20100629

Anonymous said...

There are widespread rumours of impending attacks on foreigners in SA - Zimbabwians have started to leave the Cape Town area heading home. The sudden decline in the number of farm attacks during the SWC surely begs the question: Does the ANC have the ability to stop these attacks when it suits them? Especially when the media of the world is focussing on SA.

Anonymous said...

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Xenophobia-fears-escalate-20100706

Anonymous said...

HI A Zimbabwean woman has told me that the attacks are going to spill over to the whites, you will be the second that i hear it from, what i can make of this is that foreigners are all non SA people & all non black SA people.