Three black attackers stab white farmer to death

The South African Police Service (SAPS) have since launced a manhunt for three black suspects who attacked Truter and his wife and son on their farm. Their daughter was not home at the time.

Swart says one man first entered the house and Truter and his 18-year-old son managed to overpower him but two other black assaillants stabbed Truter several times in the back. He was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

Truter was the white agricultural manager on Unifrutti’s Dunbrody Estates, a citrus farm in Kirkwood.

Farm manager Truter is the latest victim in the ongoing farm murders. Photo supplied

The brutal murder in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday evening has left the community in utter shock.

As reported by Sowetan Live, police are looking for three black suspects. One of the suspects, who had surprised the farmer and his son, struggled to hold the victims down as the 51-year-old fought back. The two other attackers also entered the house and proceeded to stab the farmer in the back.

“The family was at home when an unknown male entered the house. The 51-year-old father and his son allegedly managed to overpower the suspect.

“Suddenly two more suspects entered the house, of which one started stabbing the 51-year-old father in his back. The father and son released the suspect and the threesome ran away from the scene.” Captain Swart noted in a statement.

Truter was rushed to a local hospital but it was too late to save him. According to Captain Swart, the police “are not certain whether the masked robbers actually fled with anything” even though the family reported that nothing was stolen.  Despite nothing being robbed from the house, the SAPS insisted that the murder charge be accompanied by an attempted robbery charge.

The SAPS firmly maintains that all white farm murders are actually robberies “gone wrong” and this latest attack on a white farmer is no exception.

“A task team consisting of various specialised units was set up immediately in order to search for the three suspects. It is alleged that the suspects wore balaclavas at the time of the attack. It is not clear at this stage if anything was taken during the robbery,” said Swart.

Gideon Meiring, former chairperson of the Transvaal Agricultural Union’s safety and security committee, criticised the SAPS for failing to prevent farm attacks, stating that the police “are not part of the solution but part of the bloody problem”.

Kallie Kriel of AfriForum accused black politicians of inciting hatred against white farmers, saying “Those who inflame hate and aggression towards farmers have to be regarded as accomplices to the murders of farmers.”

After an Australian journalist was given a guided tour of South Africa by Afriforum, reports of the attacks on white farmers appeared in News Corp Australia newspapers, noting that white South Africans were “trapped like frogs in boiling water” and that the South African government was “notoriously corrupt” and “potentially complicit” in the attacks. The reports highlighted that the farmers were being “persecuted” because of their race.

In March 2018, Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton proposed fast-tracking white South African farmers as refugees, stating that “they need help from a civilised country” after pressure by the South African Australian community for a special immigration intake for their family members.

In August 2018, Fox News host Tucker Carlson also reported that the South African government had disproportionately targeted white farmers during its ongoing land grab efforts due to anti-white racism. He criticized political “elites”, who cry “racism”, but pay “no attention” to the “racist government of South Africa”.

After US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has meanwhile looked into the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers, political officers of the American embassy in South Africa investigated the claims.

In a cable sent to the State Department, the investigation concluded that there was “no evidence that murders on farms specifically target white people or are politically motivated” and that “[s]ome journalists and lobby groups have simplified complex land disputes to serve their own ends”.