“There is a real issue with South African farmers being killed or violently attacked, experts told us. But most of the violent acts are committed during robberies in a country where most of the wealth and land post-apartheid is still owned by a relatively small white minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, white farmers are being killed in South Africa,\u201d political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, co-director of the Observatory of Political Radicalism at the Jean Jaur\u00e8s Foundation in Paris, told us via email. \u201cHowever, there is nothing like a \u2018white genocide.\u2019 And the issue needs to be seen in the broader context of a country plagued by crime and gang activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although police statistics are imprecise on the issue, there have been about 50 farm murders per year over the last several years. That\u2019s less than 1% of all murders in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMurder victimization is far more correlated to class, gender and location than race,\u201d Lizette Lancaster of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, told us via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFarm attacks, including murders, do occur in South Africa, and many are undeniably brutal,\u201d Anthony Kaziboni, a political and critical sociologist at the University of Johannesburg\u2019s Centre for Social Development in Africa, told us via email. \u201cHowever, South Africa must be understood in its broader socio-economic and historical context.\u201d South Africa has \u201cextreme inequality, with approximately 10% of the population (largely white) owning over 80% of the wealth. It also has a deeply violent past, and the country\u2019s structural violence persists today alongside physical violence, economic violence, and many other forms of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cViolent crime affects all sectors of society, not just farmers,\u201d Kaziboni said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n