Police Minister Mchunu clarifies rural safety strategy while addressing crime statistics

MINISTER of Police Senzo Mchunu on Friday firmly rejected claims of a genocide against white farmers in South Africa.

- YOGASHEN PILLAY

This comes as crime statistics from the fourth quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year, covering the period from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025, indicated six farm-related attacks with attacks not being on race.

Mchunu said that the National Rural Safety Strategy was designed to create a safe and secure environment in rural areas.

"In the fourth quarter, six attacks on rural communities were recorded. We do not categorise people by race, but in the context of claims of "genocide of White people', we need to unpack the killings in this category.

"The two farm owners that were murdered during the fourth quarter were African and not White. Further to that, the two farm employees and one farm manager were also African - it is the one farm dweller that was White.

"The history of farm murders in the country has always been distorted and reported in an unbalanced way; the truth is that farm murders have always included African people in more numbers."