Farming in South Africa

The number of farm murders rose to 67 in 2014 from 62 the previous year, Afriforum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) said. There were 277 farm attacks in 2014, which the organisation believes is the highest figure since 1990.

The 132.2 murders on farms per 100, 000 people is more than double the murder rate for policeman at 54.4 per 100, 000 people, the unions added, and 32.2 per 100, 000 for the country's population as a whole.

So far this month, nine murders have been committed on South African farms.

"We are releasing the statistics because the government, particularly the police department, has been refusing to release any information about farm attacks since 2007, " Ernst Roets, the deputy CEO of AfriForum, which represents mainly white commercial farmers, said.

Earlier this week, Bheki Cele, the former police commissioner and now Deputy Agriculture Minister, said farm killings were not racially motivated.

"The people that are being killed are farmers. Whether they are white, black, yellow, green or purple, we have seen farmers coming under attack and we treat it as such, " Mr Cele said.

But Chris van Zyl, of TAU, said the majority of those attacked were white.

"We don't want to racialise it, " he said. "All we are saying is that the vast majority of murder victims in the country are farmers. If we analyse the victims, the majority are white farmers."