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Civil rights group Afriforum says it received confirmation that the SA Human Rights Commission will hold public hearings into farm murders.
Deputy CEO, Ernst Roets, says the decision was made at a session of all the commissioners of the SAHRC after considering a formal request by AfriForum.
He says they will make available all resources at its disposal to the SA Human Rights Commission.
Roets says they will also ask the Commission to give victims of farm attacks as well as AfriForum the opportunity to testify about the issue.
"The problem is that government still refuses to release statistics about farm murders. On the one hand it looks like the crisis is worsening, but on the other the Department of Police to a large extent deprioritized farm murders by suspending the commandos in 2003 and deciding in 2007 to no longer release farm murder stats. Years back, government recognized that farmers were targeted in exceptionally brutal attacks, but now, a total denial of the true extent of the crisis prevails."
AfriForum earlier submitted formal complaints at the SAHRC against the careless attitude of the Department of Police against the continued wave of brutal farm attacks and farm murders in the country. A volume of letters of farm attack victims, who added their voices to AfriForum's complaint, was also submitted at the SAHRC, as well as a report by the Solidarity Research Institute regarding the matter and a copy of the book, Land of Sorrow (Kraal Publishers).
