Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Police Minister tries to mislead about land grabs

Klankgreep: Jacques Broodryk (Afrikaans)

Klankgreep: Jacques Broodryk (Engels)

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s wordplay during today’s publication of the latest quarterly crime statistics was, according to civil rights organisation AfriForum, a hopeless attempt to distort the truth regarding land grabs in South Africa. Mchunu argued, among other things, that there are no land grabs taking place in South Africa. This is despite regular reports of and court cases about land grabs in various parts of the country.

According to Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s Chief Spokesperson for Community Safety, Mchunu today ignored the injustice of land grabs taking place in rural areas by trying to draw a distinction between land grabs and land invasion. According to the Minister, the latter is an illegal act, while he describes land grabs as an “organised way and an approach by communities allowed by the government to grab land from owners”.

“The Minister’s attempts to downplay the occurrence of land grabs in South Africa are not in line with reality and were deliberately done to try to ignore the criticism that is currently being levelled at South Africa locally and internationally on the issue of private property rights,” Broodryk explains.

According to Broodryk, there are various examples of land grabs that have caused a stir in the past few months alone. In February this year, land grabs were reported outside Seshego in Limpopo; in March, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, expressed concern about illegal land grabs in the Buffalo City Municipality; also in March this year, land grabs were reported in the Mangaung Metro and the mayor, Gregory Nthatisi, confirmed again just last week that the Metro is making efforts to curb land grabs here; and earlier this month, the Johannesburg High Court – in a ruling regarding land occupied in Muldersdrift and after which the occupiers tried to obtain the land by means of a court decision – argued that occupiers had attempted to secure a “court sanctioned” land grab. Furthermore, Deputy President, Paul Mashatile, also argued in February this year that municipalities have been struggling with land grabs for years. “For a country where no land grabs supposedly occur, it is strange how many mentions politicians make of the occurrence of this problem,” says Broodryk.

Broodryk also believes that it is interesting that a decrease in farm murders was recorded specifically after the international spotlight was also cast on the occurrence of this crime.

“The protection of the rural community remains a priority for AfriForum. That is why we continue to build and empower rural safety structures to protect themselves within the framework of the law. That is exactly why we trained another 28 proto-team members from different parts of the Western Cape this past week to serve as specialists in AfriForum’s rural safety structures in this province,” concludes Broodryk.