Epoch Times - Farm Killings and Torture in South Africa Explained: Ernst Roets
Aired: 2025-09-23
Duration: 02:37


=== Unique Farm Murders (02:20) ===

[00:00:00]  The farm murders is a very serious problem in South Africa.
[00:00:05]  The response to that is to say, well, there are many problems in South Africa, so why are you pointing to this one?
[00:00:11]  But the fact of the matter is that it's a very unique problem.
[00:00:14]  And it's a problem that could only be prevented or combated by a unique counter-strategy.
[00:00:22]  And there are a few things that make the farm murders unique.
[00:00:25]  One is the extreme frequency at which it's happening.
[00:00:30]  Just the sheer numbers, thousands of people having been murdered on farms, many of them tortured.
[00:00:35]  In many of those cases, nothing is stolen.
[00:00:38]  They just come in, they torture the farmers for several hours and then they leave.
[00:00:41]  They would steal a cell phone and a car, but they steal the cell phone so that people can't call the police.
[00:00:48]  And then they would leave the car by the wayside when they leave.
[00:00:51]  So the numbers, just the numbers is very alarming.
[00:00:54]  The second is the brutality, the high levels of torture that we see.
[00:00:58]  And any torture method you can imagine has been employed in these farm attacks.
[00:01:03]  And it's the most grotesque tortures you could think of in many of these cases.
[00:01:08]  And like I said, oftentimes for hours.
[00:01:11]  The third is the unique economic impact, because farmers are skilled people, they are employers, they provide food for the country.
[00:01:19]  So it would have disastrous consequences for the nation at large, and it already has.
[00:01:26]  The fourth is just the fact that farmers live in unique circumstances.
[00:01:31]  They live far away from police stations, far away from their neighbours.
[00:01:35]  Oftentimes it's dirt roads.
[00:01:37]  Oftentimes it's bad cell phone signal.
[00:01:39]  So that alone says that you need a unique counter strategy to fix this, even though the South African government doesn't want to recognize this.
[00:01:46]  But then on top of this, what makes the farm murders exceptionally unique is that it's a very serious crime phenomenon that is also actively encouraged by politicians.
[00:01:58]  So we have a problem in South Africa with violence against women and children.
[00:02:02]  But you would never hear politicians say, we need to go out and beat women.

=== Politicians Chanting Killing (00:31) ===

[00:02:07]  And we need to go and, you know, if you see a child, you should kick the child or something.
[00:02:12]  You know, we have a serious problem in terms of poaching.
[00:02:14]  You don't hear politicians encouraging poaching.
[00:02:16]  We have a serious problem in terms of copper cable theft.
[00:02:19]  You don't hear politicians encouraging that.
[00:02:21]  But when it comes to farm murders, we continuously hear politicians and very senior politicians actively chanting about killing the farmers and so forth.
[00:02:31]  And so this has become a very, it has become a metaphor for the crisis in South Africa.