DA National Spokesperson Willie Auckump photo supplied
In what may be regarded as an unprecedented situation in South African politics, the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus find themselves at loggerheads.
The bone of contention between the two white-dominated parties is the recently adopted Parliamentary Report of the Portfolios Committees on Police and Agriculture.
The DA voted in support of the report while the FF Plus voted against it in Parliament on Tuesday.
“The Freedom Front Plus has betrayed rural communities by voting against vital farm safety reforms; the Freedom Front Plus has shown just how far it will go to remain politically relevant even if it means voting against the most important rural safety reforms ever adopted by Parliament,” wrote DA’s Spokesperson Willie Auckump in a scathing statement released to the media on Wednesday.
“Despite not attending a single meeting of the joint Portrtfolio Committees on Police and Agriculture during the months-long development of this report and showing zero interest on its work until Tuesday,” wrote Auckump.
He pointed out that the FF Plus joined radical parties like the EFF and MK Party in voting against a landmark report on farm attacks and rural crime.
Auckump insisted that “the report is not “blaming farmers but that it is a basic human rights oversight exercise and a call for balanced and fair protection for all.”
He said twisting the report into a political weapon was both dishonest and deeply irresponsible.
Auckump said it is the DA’s stated belief that “our farmers have absolutely nothing to hide and that by no means is the abuse of farm workers a norm in South Africa.”
According to Auckump, the overwhelming majority of farmers are law-abiding citizens who provide jobs, food security and community support under incredibly difficult conditions.
“Every life in our rural areas matters, and that includes the lives of those who work the land either as farmers or farm workers,” he wrote.
“The Freedom Front Plus did not vote in favour of a joint report by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on Police and Agriculture on the situation surrounding farm attacks on Tuesday because the original Parliamentary petition to investigate farm murders was manipulated to point a finger at farmers,” write FF Plus leader Dr Corne Mulder in a counter-statement submitted to Tshwane Talks.
“The original petition was intended at calling on Parliament to investigate murders and attacks on the farming community and the report that has been adopted by Parliament has several misconceptions and flawed assumptions,” he wrote.
Mulder mentioned the following points to buttress his assertion:
1. The report accuses farmers in general of ill-treating their workers so badly to the extent that the said treatment is regarded as violation of human rights.
2.The report hasn’t declared farm murders as priority crimes.
3.The report makes no mention of the inflammatory song “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.”
Mulder wrote that Freedom Front Plus is actually surprised and alarmed that the DA voted in favour of the report.