Cele tells farmers to stop employing undocumented foreigners
Police Minister Bheki Cele has laid the blame for the employment of undocumented foreigners in the sector at the door of farm owners.
Cele spoke at a rural safety summit in the Free State on Monday.
“One thing that we will have to correct, as one of the biggest employers, is the correct way of employing,” Cele said.
“You are big, you are big on the foreign national employment. You are big. You are big on the unregistered foreign national employment and you know how jittery the nation feels about that.
“The reason will be one that is dominant, you say that South Africans are lazy. Most of the people who get arrested for farm murders you will find are former workers of that farm. That includes where I visited in Newcastle. We discovered that it is a former worker or because of their relationship they came back for revenge. There must be more work done to develop the relationship of a farming family.”
Cele also warned the employment of undocumented immigrants causes the police a headache as they are untraceable.
#RuralSafetySummit Police Minister Bheki Cele has partially laid the blame on farmers for the employment of undocumented foreign nationals in the country.
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) June 27, 2022
He says when they commit crimes, it becomes difficult for the police to trace them. pic.twitter.com/cGF11LLzFm
The organisation Unite Against Farm Attacks and Murders has called on government to classify farm murders as a priority crime.
Representative Kallie Roux says this will ensure the allocation of more resources to fight the scourge.
“Farm attacks must be classified as priority crimes so that more resources can be allocated to the rural safety units. Minister Cele, it is time to bring law and order in our rural communities. Together we need to say enough is enough. It is time we turned our good intentions into good outcomes through action.”