Victimhood gone viral: portrayals of extra-lethal violence and the solidarity of victims in the case of South African farm violence activists

ABSTRACT

In her 2013 paper, Lee Ann Fujii proposes the concept of “extra-lethal violence,” which explores the ways that actors use violence over and above a standard of lethality to achieve group goals, like in-group cohesion. This paper, in an extension of Fujii’s work on extra-lethality, looks at the multiple audiences that such violence engages. Utilizing cases of rural violence in South Africa, this paper argues that the brutality of extra lethal violence provides an opportunity for mobilization not only by perpetrating populations, but also victim populations, even when it is infrequent. Organizations representing those who perceive themselves to be connected to the victims of such violence – White, mostly rural, and largely conservative South Africans – stand to benefit from focusing on the brutality of such violence. Victim groups benefit from exaggerating the scope and frequency of extra-lethality of such violence, not least because organizations representing White farmers draw more members and funds in increased threat environments. Activist groups overcome the barrier to mobilization presented by the rarity of extralethal violence by focusing on a small number of cases, and through repetition of the details.

KEYWORDS:

• South Africa
• violence
• nationalism
• transnational

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Afriforum styles itself as a civil rights organization that aims to protect “the rights of minorities” with specific reference to Afrikaners. Journalists and scholars have characterized it as a right-wing organization (Godinho 2014) that has championed the Afrikaner cause, including protection of apartheid monuments and the Afrikaans language in higher education (Modiri 2013). Max du Preez, a major news media figure in South Africa, has said that Afriforum “trades in fear and ethnic mobilisation … It has demonstrated repeatedly that intolerance, ethnic chauvinism, intimidation, crude propaganda, confrontation and provocation are part of its strategic arsenal”(Du Preez 2016), while scholars have compared the organization to the alt-right and White nationalist organizations in the United States and Western Europe (van der Westhuizen 2018).

2 A right-wing party that has primarily represented Afrikaans interests. The main causes for which the party fights are self-determination for cultural minorities, including a volkstaat for Afrikaners, maintenance of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in public education, the anti-farm murders campaign, and devolution of power to local communities.

3 There was no evidence or charges of sexual violence in any of the court proceedings in this case.

4 Data on farm murders and attacks was not available from state sources in 2007/2008, 2008/2009 or 2009/2010. (“Explaining the Official Crime Statistics for 2012/2013” 2013; South African Police Service 2017, 2018)

5 Roets reports in his book that the rate is 17.6% because he takes the number of torture reports as a subset of farm attacks where murders took place (N = 74) (2018, 53), despite the fact that he later recounts the individual stories (2018, 59) and includes at least one victim who reported torture but was not killed, Nicci Simpson, who is also referenced in the parliamentarian’s speech discussed below. It is more appropriate, therefore, to calculate the rate of extralethal violence and torture as a subset of farm attacks overall, rather than specifically farm murders.

6 Conviction (SAPA 2011b).

7 Trial (News24 2015).

8 Guilty Plea (Regchand 2014).

9 Conviction (SAPA 2014).

10 Police Investigation (Randfontein Herald 2017) This case was also referenced by Afriform in videos

11 Unsubstantiated claim, but possibly a case from 2016, where a farmer claimed to have been attacked, and set off a panic button. His neighbors joined together in a vigilante group who killed two Black men in response (Pijoos 2016).

12 For Redelinghuys farm murder (Letaba Herald 2017), for Grobler farm attack (de Wet 2018), for Erasmus farm attack (Muller 2017), for Swart/Greyling farm attack (Hlatshwayo 2005), for van de Heever farm attack (News24 2002), for Cross farm murder (Smillie 2006).

13 Part of a larger project (Holmes 2020).