ATTACKS against South Africa’s white farmers are on the rise with some victims being tortured with electric drills, blowtorches and bleach, according to a new report.
Research by Afriforum, a group which champions the rights of the country’s Afrikaner minority, said assaults on the farms shot up 25 percent last year. And it warned the attacks against landowners were becoming increasingly brutal. Afriforum spokesman Ernst Roets said there was a “racial element” to the violence with research showing only white farming families suffered such levels of savagery.
He said there were more than eight attacks on rural properties every week, 433 incidents in 2018, up from 342 the previous year and the highest recorded by the group.
The number of murders last year was down to 54 from 72 in 2017, its lowest since 2011, suggesting some of the farmers were fighting back.
Mr Roets said: “More victims are shooting back, more are being trained and more are defending themselves.
“They are not allowing themselves to be victims. The farmers aren’t waiting to get murdered, but rather prepared for that contact to happen.”
Hellbound and Down 