The silence of the farming communities following the recent arrest of 46 undocumented immigrants en route to work on a farm in Piketberg, Western Cape, does very little to help in the fight against the crimes committed in those farming areas.
This is not to suggest that crimes on farms are specifically committed by immigrants, far from it.
But farmers are often the first, and rightly so, to demand increased policing and other safety measures when a crime has been committed. They have to play an active role in helping meet the law enforcement agencies halfway.
Employing people who cannot be accounted for only aggravates a situation that has already been highly politicised.
The latest crime statistics released last month indicates that 14 murders occurred on farms while AfriForum claims this was an undercount.
We have not heard much about the arrests. Very often our police sources tell us of the difficulties in making breakthroughs in these incidents.
Among the challenges they cite is the growing employment of undocumented immigrants, presumably for cheap labour. Obviously tracing undocumented individuals is a fruitless exercise.
At the same time tensions between locals and the foreign nationals increase as the scramble for limited jobs intensifies.
Considering the severe impact in rural and farming communities, farm owners should be the last to be silent when some of their own are on the wrong side.
For example in the Piketberg incident, more than 60 people were being transported in a truck and a few of them managed to escape when the vehicle was stopped. It turned out that about 50 didn't have their documents.
Bergrivier mayor Ray van Rooy’s concerns about the growing trend of employing illegal immigrants should be a worry shared by all our farmers.
“This is a concern for the community in Bergrivier as this is becoming a trend now.
“I am concerned about the labour contractor who brings the people to our communities. They only care about the money they get from bringing them to the farms. We also don’t understand why the local farmers employ illegal immigrants and not our local people,” he said.
Cape Times