Violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa

This policy brief examines the trends and statistical challenges surrounding violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa, arguing that these crimes correlate with broader national trends in violent robbery and murder.

• Violent crimes on farms and smallholdings have increased in recent years, following a general upward trend in serious and violent crimes across South Africa. This includes a correlation with increases in murder and house robberies since 2011/12.
• Farm attacks share characteristics with 'trio crimes'—house robbery, business robbery, and carjacking—specifically as organised violent robberies. The primary difference is the geographical isolation of farms, which allows attackers more time to commit extremely violent acts, including torture.
• There is a significant lack of reliable, official data because the South African Police Service (SAPS) stopped regularly publishing farm attack and murder statistics in 2008. This has led to the use of unofficial data from entities like the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU SA) and AfriForum, which often vary and are questioned for their credibility.
• The SAPS previously justified the cessation of specific farm crime recording by citing high costs for independent databases and the fact that farm attacks do not have their own dedicated crime category, relying instead on individual police stations to send information independently.
• Historical data from 1991 to 2001 recorded 6,122 attacks and 1,254 deaths. In 2001 alone, 1,011 attacks occurred with 147 deaths; of the 1,398 victims that year, 61.6% were white, 33.3% black, 4.4% Asian, and 0.7% coloured.
• The Rural Protection Plan was severely undermined by the 2003 decision to phase out the Commando System, which consisted of part-time army volunteers. While a new National Rural Safety Strategy was introduced in 2011, the author suggests the criminal justice system's general failure to address robbery and murder makes it unlikely that farm attacks will be effectively ended without systemic rejuvenation.

APA

Burger, J. (2018). Violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb115-4.pdf

Chicago

Burger, Johan. Violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2018. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb115-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Burger |first1=Johan |title=Violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=2018 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb115-4.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{burger2018violent, author = {Burger, Johan}, title = {{Violent crime on farms and smallholdings in South Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2018}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb115-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }