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Farm Murders In South Africa Once Again Rise As Boschkop Farmer Murdered

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 02:20 PST, Jul 3, 2016

A South African farmer was shot to death on his Boschkop farm. Jan Hettema, 83, was killed at his farm house when two armed robbers broke in and opened fire on him.

EyeWitness News reported that Hettema’s wife was also assaulted by the attackers. Netcare 911’s Athlenda Mathe said that the man was already dead when they arrived on the scene.

“When we arrived on scene, we found that the elderly man had already died, before our arrival, due to the gunshot wound he sustained. We declared him dead on scene, before handing the body over to the Boschkop police.”

Hettema is just the latest victim in a long list of farmers who have been murdered in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994. As previously reported in Inquisitr, the ANC led government has continued to ignore the farm murders as a human rights issue even though farming in South Africa is one of the most dangerous occupations worldwide. In the latest human rights report released, human rights and white genocide in South Africa are being completely ignored.

News 24 reported that Jan Hettema was a former South African rally champion, driver and cyclist. Police spokesperson Captain Marissa van der Merwe said that the farm murder occurred at Hettema’s small holding in Tweedrag near Boschkop early in the morning. Van der Merwe went on to say that two armed intruders overpowered Hettema, his wife, and a worker on the farm. The suspects stole a laptop, jewelry, and cellphones.

Jan Hettema won the South African Rally championship five times, and he also competed in the 1956 Olympics, which took place in Melbourne, Australia. He took fourth place in the event.

Rekord East reported that Hettema’s wife was assaulted during the robbery and farm murder, although she only sustained minor injuries. This attack follows on the heels of another attack that took place in Laezonia, west of Centurion, where a 63-year-old man was murdered. Police failed to say if this was another farm murder. The man was found in a pool of blood outside his home on Boundary Street.

Four men are linked to the murder of the man, and police are currently searching for them in connection to the crime. Hettema’s killers are still at large and police are currently seeking them while his body was handed over to the police for further investigation.

One issue connected to the farm murders is land reform. The Daily Maverick reported that land reform in South Africa is in trouble. Around half of the land reform projects have seen improvement for the beneficiaries, but these improvements are limited. Several thousand restitution claims were lodged before 1998, and 20,000 claims that have been lodged have yet to be resolved. Around 150,000 new claims have been lodged since 2014, but the number could rise to a staggering 400,000, further complicating the issue.

With organizations like the Economic Freedom Fighters calling for land confiscation without compensation, it has further aggravated the friction and may be one of the issues driving farm murders and attacks. The Constitution of South Africa is enabling of land reform, and it calls for just and equitable compensation even when the compensation is below market value.

The current drought and rising food prices have further aggravated the problems that South Africans face, and with the farm murders and attacks, it leaves fewer farmers to address the rising demand for food. It was once the breadbasket of Africa, and now South Africa has to import a large proportion of its food, creating new problems.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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