Finally, last year, under the intense spotlight focused on the issue by the Trump administration, there were 30 farm murders recorded, the lowest number in 26 years. To put that number in perspective, that is still ten times the number of people killed in residential robberies in England and Wales in 2024. It is three times the total number of people killed in all robbery murders in Germany in that same year.

To understand the emergence of the phenomenon, it’s important to go back to the farm murder index case. In the revolutionary ferment of the mid-1980s in South Africa, there was, in fact, a major ANC campaign – directed from exile – to clear the white farmers off the land.

This essentially took three forms: The first was generalised incitement, exhortations to the people “to rise up and seize the land!”, and so on. The second was a landmine warfare campaign, which was also meant to involve an assassination component. And the third was to infiltrate guerrillas from their camps in Angola into South Africa, to link up with the paramilitary bands of youth who had made the townships ungovernable, and to give them training and direction for attacks on targets in the white areas.

Indeed, guerrillas were sent on special short courses, ahead of their deployments, in how to provide such on-the-spot training once back in South Africa. This was how the first farm murders of this particular type were instigated in mid-1985, and also how the “Kill the Boer” chant – which actually originates from the Rhodesian Bush War of the 1970s – was injected into South Africa during the tumult of that era. It’s important to note as well that it was part of MK doctrine at the time that once in South Africa its guerrillas could use robbery to secure weapons and operational funds in so-called “repossession operations.” Furthermore, a common ANC/MK call to action at the time was for the youth to go into the homes, the businesses, and the farmsteads of the enemy and seize the weapons that were allegedly contained therein.