The killing of South African farmer and notorious white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche at the weekend has highlighted the high murder rate of isolated farmers and growers in South Africa.
According to press reports, the number of white farmers - some of them growers of fruit for the UK’s major multiples - killed since apartheid ended in 1994 totals more than 3,000.
Stuart Symington of the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum has criticised the media hype since Terre’Blanche’s killing, but said the issue was a serious one.
He told freshinfo: “Too many farmers have died since 1994. For a number of years there has been a lack of security in the very remote locations where many of these farms are located... any loss of life is hugely regrettable.”
Just a week before Terre’Blanche’s killing, The Sunday Times reported that many of South Africa’s 40,000 farmers feel endangered.
