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Farm Murder Motive A Mystery For Police While Writer Calls For Government To Take Murder Seriously

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 11:11 PST, Mar 23, 2016

On Saturday, another South African farmer was murdered when he stepped outside his home to have a cigarette. The man was attacked by two other men where a struggle ensued and the farmer was shot and killed. According to police, the motive for the farm murder remains a mystery.

News 24 reported that the grain and cattle farmer Richard ­Vickers, 49, was shot and killed at his home around 7:45 p.m. Vickers was shot in the yard of his Tipperary Farm. One unconfirmed report given says that Kim Vickers, the man’s wife, was robbed of R7000 (approximately $456). Although police have not determined a motive in the shooting, they did find two 9mm shell casings at the scene.

Transport company owner Gavin Potter, who frequently delivered goods to the farm, said that the shooting seemed suspicious.

“It is suspicious that someone just walked onto the farm and shot him. We heard that the killers didn’t take much but we will just have to wait and see what the police come back with.”

As previously reported in Inquisitr, the farm murder of Vickers is just the latest in a series of murders that have happened. Four family members, including a 9-year-old girl, were bludgeoned to death in Randfontein. No suspects have been taken into custody in the murders, and police have made an appeal for information leading to the arrest of the suspects.

Although farm murders have been classified as a priority crime by police, at least 1,700 farm murders have happened since 1994 when apartheid ended. Critics of the numbers say that the murders are much higher and that as many as 3,000 to 4,000 farmers have been murdered, making farming in South Africa the most dangerous occupation in the world.

Koos Marais, who chairs the security desk at the KwaZulu Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu), said that they were greatly concerned over the ease with which farm murders were being committed.

“We are concerned that there is yet another murder of a food producer in the province. It is long overdue that the government address the problem.”

Politics Web reported that the South African government needed to take farm murders more seriously. Dr. Pieter Groenewald, the FF Plus’ chief spokesperson, said that the recent murder of four people on the Randfontein farm, including 9-year-old Kayla Meyer, whose neck was broken, pointed to the cruelty of the murders.

“If one looks at the recent murder of a family on a smallholding outside Randfontein, which per definition are farm murders, the question necessarily arises as to how it could be possible that a nine year-old girl could be killed with a spade without anything really being stolen. Government previously launched an investigation into the cruelty which accompanies these murders, but nothing came of it.”

Groenewald went on to say that the murder rate in South Africa was too high with 32 murders per 100,000 people, five times the number of murders anywhere else worldwide. Farm murders revealed an even higher number with 133 per 100,000.

He also pointed out that the police commissioner said that farm murders were a priority and called on both police and government to act decisively in the matter. The cruelty of the farm murders also need to be addressed, and the figures offered by organizations like the SA Medical Research Council could actually point to even higher numbers than previously thought.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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