Tag: SAIIR

SAIIR says state actively discriminating against whites

Public service managers are being encouraged to keep posts vacant rather than fill them with whites, an SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) says.

“In the name of transformation, managers in the public service have actually been incentivised to keep whites out for racial and ideological reasons. Better to leave a vacancy unfilled than to put a white person into it,” SAIRR consultant John Kane-Berman said in the newsletter, published on Tuesday.

He said this was a “lose-lose-lose situation” and “madness”.

In the newsletter, Kane-Berman was responding to the death of three babies in Bloemhof, North West, due to water contamination caused by a sewage spill.

Earlier in June, the SAIRR reportedly blamed affirmative action for the deaths, and said the policy should be scrapped.

The institute said black empowerment policies had seen unqualified people appointed to positions where their incompetence affected poor and vulnerable communities.

“The Bloemhof municipality lost its capacity to maintain the sewer plant,” chief executive Frans Cronje was quoted as saying at the time.

“There is no doubt that the officials responsible for these deaths were appointed, at least in part, on grounds of race-based affirmative action and that a direct causal link therefore exists between the policy and the deaths.”

Kane-Berman said those appointed to posts were unqualified and were appointed only because they are black.

“Posts are sometimes left vacant if the only person available to fill them is white. It further means that experienced people who happen to be white get out of the public service because they are denied promotion or encouraged to take early retirement.”

The problem is further complicated by a lack of accountability in government, with politicians accountable to party headquarters, rather than to the electorate.

“People who fail to do their jobs, or who defraud the state, do so because they know they can get away with it,” he said.

The mix, he said, was toxic.

“Our system of government is indeed poisoned by a toxic mix of affirmative action, cadre deployment, and impunity.

“Filling a racial quota or supporting the right party, or the right faction within it, are often more important.”

South Africa was suffering from a crumbling health system and a rising disease burden, he said.

“Hospitals and clinics don’t run themselves. They are run by people. When things go wrong… it is not the result of happenstance or bad luck or just one of those things. It is the result of decisions made or actions taken, or not taken, by those people.

“So it is a logical inference that something is wrong with the criteria according to which appointments in these facilities are made.”

He said healthcare management was in crisis, infrastructure and equipment in health facilities were in a desperate state, facilities in rural areas faced dire shortages, and those in urban areas were under severe strain due to a growing population.

“Again, it is a reasonable inference that affirmative action and cadre deployment in the public service compound the problems arising from the country’s skills backlogs, and failure to train government professionals,” he said.

Kane-Berman said anger at nepotism, corruption, and lack of accountability were behind numerous protests across the country.

Quoting from a report by the Commission for Employment Equity, he said Africans presently held 69 percent of top management jobs in government.

“But Africans within the 35 to 64 age cohort from which one would expect top managers to be drawn make up only 36 percent of the economically active population, while only 4.1 percent of over 20s have post-school training.

“This suggests that affirmative action has been rigorously implemented in the public sector regardless of levels of experience or formal qualification.”

He said it was widely recognised that South Africa was plagued by corruption, nepotism, incompetence, and lack of accountability.

“A few people are beginning to identify cadre deployment as a problem. Very few people are willing to identify affirmative action as part of the problem,” he said.

“South Africans need to wake up to the tragic results of the policies being implemented in their name.”

White farmers 13 times more likely to be attacked

SAIRR has amended their view on farm attacks. According to Institute’s calculations white farming families may be 13 times more likely to be attacked.

This Research and Policy Brief paper seeks to determine the extent to which farmers are uniquely vulnerable to armed attack in South Africa. It draws comparisons between the rate of attack on farmers and their families to that of other citizens in South Africa.

On 5 October 2012 the South African Institute of Race Relations released a statement on farm attacks in South Africa. The statement was based on farm attack data by the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU). It has since been drawn to our attention by James Myburgh that the TAU data is compromised by a significant undercount of as much as 7:1 in terms of the actual number of farm attacks. Our initial analysis has therefore been revised accordingly. The revised analysis follows below.

The table below compares the farm attack rate for farmers and their families to the house robbery rate, aggravated robbery rate, and combined aggravated robbery and murder and attempted murder rates for the broader population.  It is based on three assumptions. The first is that there are 47 000 commercial farmers in South Africa. This is based on StatsSA’s Census of Commercial Agriculture 2007. The second is that the average household size for farmers is 3. This is the average household size for white South Africans. The third is that, following from James Myburgh’s analysis, TAU undercounts farm attacks by an average of 7 to 1. The fourth is that attacks on smallholdings should be included as attacks on farms.

  47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 people National population = 50.6 million people Ratio of farm attacks to attacks on general population
 

Rate per 100 000 people
Farm attacks vs house robberies 422 33 12.8 to 1
Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery 422 200 2.1 to 1
Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery + murder + attempted murder 422 260 1.6 to 1

Table 1: Attacks on farmers and their families compared to other citizens (smallholdings included)

The table shows that based on those four assumptions the number of attacks on farmers and their dependants is 422/100 000. The number of house robberies in the broader population is 33/100 000. In this comparison farming families are 13 times more likely to be attacked than other families. However, farm attacks also include all forms of robbery and not just house robbery.

For that reason the table also compares the farm attack rate to the broader armed robbery rate in the country. Here the farm attack rate, which remains at 422/100 000, must be compared to the national armed robbery rate of 200/100 000. In terms of this comparison farmers and their families are twice as likely to be attacked as other citizens. Farm attacks also involve murder and attempted murder.

For this reason the table also compares the farm attack rate to the joint aggravated robbery/murder/attempted murder rate for the broader population. Here the farm attack rate, which remains at 422/100 000, can be compared to the national murder and aggravated robbery rate of 260/100 000. Even on this analysis farmers remain more vulnerable to attack by a ratio of 1.6 to 1.

However, the argument can be made that smallholdings are basically large urban plots and not really farms. For that reason we have published the table below which compares farm attacks, excluding attacks on smallholdings, to criminal attacks in the broader population. The other three assumptions made about the data (above) are unchanged.

  47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 people National population = 50.6 million people Ratio of farm attacks to attacks on general population
 

Rate per 100 000 people
Farm attacks vs house robberies 262 33 7.9 to 1
Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery 262 200 1.3 to 1
Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery + murder + attempted murder 262 260 1 to 1

Table 2: Attacks on farmers and their families compared to other citizens (smallholdings excluded)

This table shows that when smallholdings are taken out of the equation the farm attack rate declines to 262/100 000 farmers and their families. Compared to the national house robbery rate of 33/100 000 farmers are on this measure eight times more likely to be attacked than other citizens.

However, the table shows that when this new farm attack rate is compared to the broader aggravated robbery rate of 200/100 000 this ratio comes down to 1.3 to 1. Furthermore, when the farm attack rate is compared to the broader aggravated robbery/murder/attempted murder rate of 260/100 000 that ratio reaches a level of parity of 1 to 1. In other words, on this measure farming families are no more likely to be attacked than other citizens.

We have also conducted an analysis of the murder of farmers, based on TAU’s more complete murder figures. In order to produce a figure for the highest possible murder rate the table below assumes that only the 47 000 farmers, and not their families, are targeted in farm murders.

  47 000 farmers National population = 50.6 million Ratio of farmer murders attacks to murders in the general population
 

Rate per 100 000 people
Farm murders vs all murders 68 31 2.2 to 1

Table 3: The murder of farmers

On this measure the table shows that in 2011 some 68/100 000 farmers in the country were murdered. This compares to a national murder rate of 31/100 000. On this analysis farmers are twice as likely to be murdered as ordinary citizens.  However, while farmers are particularly likely to be murdered, it is true that family members may also be murdered in attacks. It is for this reason that we have prepared the final table below, which compares the murder rate for farmers and their families to that of other citizens.

  47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 National population = 50.6 million Ratio of farmer/family murders to murders in the general population
 

Rate per 100 000 people
Farm murders vs all murders 33 31 1.1 to 1

Table 4: The murder of farmers and their families

This table shows that in 2011 the murder rate for farmers and their families was 33/100 000. The murder rate for the broader population was 31/100 000. On this comparison farmers and their families are not more likely to be murdered than other citizens.

Keep in mind that our analysis has excluded the 220 000 emerging commercial farmers, some of whom are large producers, who may also be attacked. We have also excluded from this analysis farm managers and extended families that may live on farms and become victims of attack. Our figures therefore suggest worst-case scenarios for farming families.

What conclusions can be drawn? The first is that the past week has seen a sharp increase in the quality and level of analysis of farm attacks in South Africa. It has also focused considerable media attention on the problem. Both of these are good things.

The second is that it is possible to argue that farmers are uniquely vulnerable to attack contrary to our initial conclusions drawn from the incomplete TAU data. This is especially so where a straight comparison is drawn between the house robbery rate and the farm attack rate. The same is true for the murder rate of farmers (excluding family members).

The third is that by changing some assumptions it is possible to reach somewhat different conclusions. For example, it is reasonable to compare farm attacks, which is a term inclusive of robbery and murder, to the broader robbery and murder rates of the society. When this is done farmers remain more at risk, although by a smaller measure. However, it is when the assumptions shift to exclude smallholdings that the picture changes significantly. Then the comparisons suggest that farmers are not uniquely vulnerable to violent attack.

However, even this result should not be taken to suggest that farmers are safe. Analysts of our data must consider that South Africa’s crime rates are uniquely high. Our murder rate, for example, is 500% higher than that of the United States and 3000% higher than parts of Western Europe such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This brings us to our fourth conclusion that all South Africans face an extraordinary criminal onslaught. People who have previously regarded farm attacks as a somewhat distant problem, nothing to do with them, must realise that they arguably live in as much peril as farmers do. It is clear therefore, regardless of how they rank compared to other citizens, that as a best-case scenario, farmers live a perilous existence in a largely lawless society.

The fifth conclusion is that, unlike urban middle class residents, farmers do not have the benefit of armed response companies or nearby police stations. Rather they depend on their own defences to secure themselves and their families. In addition, no analysis of the security position of farmers would be complete without noting the role of the State in exacerbating their vulnerability. The closure of the commandos and the Government and the African National Congress’s ambivalence at best toward the incitement by some of their own members to kill farmers creates an environment in which South Africa’s farmers are likely to be killed.

The final conclusion is that there can ultimately be no solution to farm attacks without a broader solution to the general problem of criminal violence in our society. In other words, farmers will not be safe until other citizens are safe and vice-versa. This is a point that advocacy groups can use to great effect in their important campaigns to alert policy makers and the international community to the murder of farmers in South Africa.

Issued by Frans Cronje, Lucy Holborn, Boitumelo Sethlatswe, South African Institute of Race Relations, October 10 2012