The civil rights organization AfriForum and the farmers network Saai will hold a nationwide resistance patrol in response to opposition from neighborhood and farm guards on Saturday.
Ian Cameron, head of community safety at AfriForum, says the resistance patrol is being held because in some cases there is still opposition to the activities of neighborhood and farm guards.
“It seems that some of the top government officials’ focus is not the fight against crime, because that’s exactly what neighborhood and farm guards do. It is our constitutional right to protect us within the framework of the law and we therefore encourage all members of neighborhood and farm guards to resume their operations.
“AfriForum expects that there will be an increase in crime at level 3 of the restriction. So it is now more important than ever before that criminals realize that our communities are resilient, ”says Cameron.
Sao board chairman Theo de Jager says there has been an increase in farm attacks in the past few days.
“We want our farmers to be able to protect themselves, and one of the most important ways to do this is through patrols. Especially on farms, people can’t just rely on the police for protection. The farming community plays an important role in helping people’s safety. We cannot allow the police to intimidate people when they simply want to defend themselves and their property legally, ”says De Jager.
Neighborhood and farm guards were not operational in terms of level 4 and level 5 restrictions in terms of regulations, but regulation 33), which Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, issued on May 28, clearly states that people may leave their places of residence to provide specific services, with the exception of activities listed in Table 2 of these regulations.
“Neighborhood and farm guards are not mentioned in this table,” Cameron says.
