By Umamah Bakharia

Agri SA says the safety of farming communities should be a priority during the festive season.

This comes after, the country has been rocked by a series of deadly and brutal farm murders in several provinces over the past couple of months.

Chair of Agri SA’s Centre of Excellence: Rural Safety, Uys van der Westhuijzen, says the high crime levels, particularly farm attacks, have had a devastating impact on various farming operations.

Chair of Agri SA’s Centre of Excellence: Rural Safety, Uys van der Westhuijzen.

Van der Westhuijzen spoke to Radio Islam on the need for protection to farmers and their employees.

He stresses that farming communities require high visibility- as the police do not have enough resources in the rural areas to do carry out their jobs.

“We need to work together with the police, we cannot work in isolation with one another and security companies- we think if we can get that idea going, it will definitely improve the visibility to prevent crime,” says van der Westhuijzen.

South Africa has reported a high number of stock theft in farming areas, leaving a gap in the economy from the agricultural sector.

Reports say that farming threats could lead to food insecurity.

According to Westhuijzen, South Africa can face a huge food security crisis if there is a lack of protection for farmers. As employees will fear coming to work, therefore, no harvesting can be done.

AgriSA is calling on farming communities and the area police to work together and lend their resources and intelligence to one another to help fight crime threats.