South Africa’s police protecting criminals and arresting law-abiding farmers

Francois Wilken, the chairperson of Vrystaat Landbou, said that the South African Police Service is protecting criminals and targeting law-abiding citizens.

He shared this information during an interview with ‘In Gesprek met Lourensa Eckard’ on Kyknet last week.

Wilken said that they have appealed to the SA Police Service to address the stock theft problem in specific areas, including Steynsrus.

However, the response has been poor, and even where police leaders promised to intervene, nothing happened on the ground.

“Even in cases where there is cooperation from the police, they do not have the vehicles or personnel on the ground when the theft happens,” he said.

This leaves the farmers to address the crime themselves. However, even in the cases where there is a citizens’ arrest, the police often side with the criminals.

“In cases where the farmer intervened and arrested the criminal, the farmer often becomes the person who is targeted by the police,” he said.

This, he said, makes it difficult for the farming community to assist the police in addressing crime in rural areas.

“In a normal democracy, the police are on the side of law-abiding citizens. In South Africa, the police are on the side of the criminals,” he said.

He explained that farmers cannot handle the crime problem alone, as the South African Police Service must be involved at some point.

“When a farmer arrests a stock thief, they have to hand the criminal to the police to start the criminal justice process,” he said.

However, this is where the problem comes in. Instead of gathering evidence to prosecute the criminal, they side with the criminal against the farmers.

“We are training farmers to follow all the right procedures when they are engaged in a civil arrest. However, even that is not enough,” he said.

“The farmers arrest the thieves and hand them over to the police. However, the next morning, the farmer is charged.”

“The police, through the night, help the criminals to say certain things to implicate the farmer in wrongdoing, which then leads to the farmer’s arrest.”

He said that the police typically arrive at the farmer’s house on a Friday afternoon with multiple vehicles to arrest him in front of his family.

“The police then lock the farmer up for the weekend, and he must then defend himself against the stock thief and the police who told him what to say,” Wilken said.

“This is not the type of action from the South African Police Service which will encourage support from farmers.”