Mailbox: "The slow genocide" - Pieter Kelbrick
Key topics:
Farm murders match UN genocide criteria in slow, systemic ways
Survivors face torture, trauma, and the collapse of rural life
State inaction normalizes violence and undermines justice
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By Pieter Kelbrick
Dear Editor,
The genocide in Rwanda shocked the world: over a million people were wiped out in just three months. It was swift, brutal, and undeniable. But in South Africa’s rural areas, another tragedy is unfolding—one that is slow, quiet, and systematic: the ongoing murders and attacks on farmers and their families. A slow genocide.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), genocide comprises four key pillars, when directed intentionally at a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group:
Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm
Deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the group’s gradual destruction
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
When applying these criteria to farm attacks in South Africa, serious questions arise:
The killings on farms are not just numbers — they are human lives ended in brutal ways.
The torture, rape, and emotional trauma experienced by survivors clearly fall under the second pillar.
The viability of farming is constantly under threat — physically, economically, and psychologically — forcing families to stop farming or flee the country.
The result is a steady erosion of a specific minority group’s existence, culture, and participation in the rural economy.
Although it may not happen in a single dramatic moment, this pattern meets the core elements of the UN definition. The passivity of the state and the normalization of this violence contribute to a sense that these lives are worth less — a violation of the right to safety, dignity, and existence.
It is time we stop pretending this is just “ordinary crime.” This is a slow genocide — and it must be called by name. Recognition is the first step toward justice and real protection for those who feed South Africa every day.
Sincerely,
Pieter Kelbrick
Mossel bay