WATCH | Murdered farmer’s friend issues plea for public support

Four murders and thirteen attacks occurred on farms during the week that the crime statistics were released.

This is according to the civil rights group AfriForum.

One of the victims of the latest attacks was 47-year-old Stellenbosch wine farmer Joubert Conradie.

Conradie died in hospital after being shot on his farm in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The incident prompted one of his friends, Chris Loubser, to post a video online expressing his heartache over the loss of his friend.

The viral video also asks South Africans to wear black on Monday as a sign of respect to victims of farm attacks.

Commercial farmers are 4.5 times as likely to get murdered as the South African population as a whole, according to AfriForum‚ which released its latest statistics on attacks and murders on farms in Centurion on Wednesday.

The organisation reported that 156 commercial farmers are killed per 100,000. According to the police’s annual crime statistics released on Tuesday‚ 34.1 South Africans are murdered per 100,000 of the population.

AfriForum recorded 70 murders and 357 attacks on farms in 2016.

Deputy CEO Ernst Roets said the group was being “deliberately conservative” in its numbers.

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