Article: https://www.da.org.za/2023/08/68-days-and-counting-ramaphosa-still-refuses-to-take-action-on-farm-murders
Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, has been accused of escalating an ongoing crisis of farm attacks and murders of white South African farmers. There have been 16 farmers murdered between May and July of 2023, raising the murder rate from the first quarter of 2023 to 56%. “Ramaphosa and his government would rather expend their energy defending Vladimir Putin than care for the welfare of farmers who work hard to protect South Africa’s food security.” This all shows where Ramaphosa’s interests truly are. President Ramaphosa has ignored all formal requests by the Democratic Alliance to establish a Commision of Inquiry into this crisis.
I believe this issue could be resolved if President Ramaphosa would pay more attention to his country instead of solely foreign affairs and funding an illegitimate war. Ramaphosa clearly has the authority to appoint commissions of inquiry, in Chapter 584(2)(f) of their Constitution, that would make it possible for this ongoing and escalating crisis to be investigated. If this trend continues, 50+ more farmers will be murdered leaving a lot of South Africans to starve because a farm may be out of production for 12+ months after a farmer has been attacked or murdered.
My connection to class is the issue of human rights, regional instability, and maybe even the lack of media coverage on this crisis. The crisis in South Africa is a clear violation of human rights because of the targeting of white farmers with no punishment for the murderers. This also causes regional instability because of the dwindling number of farmers to farm food for South Africa and without a stable food supply, there will be many South Africans starving. The lack of media is also a problem because of how hard it is to find coverage on this current issue.