Every time South Africa’s farm murder statistics are released, the same argument inevitably follows: ‟Farm murders are declining. The problem can’t be that serious anymore.”

It is an easy conclusion to reach. It is also a dangerous one.

Yes, AfriForum recorded 37 farm murders during 2025 – a welcome decline compared with previous years. Every life saved matters. Every family spared the trauma of losing a loved one is something to celebrate.

But anyone who concludes from this figure that rural South Africa has become significantly safer fundamentally misunderstands what has happened over the past decade.

Farm murders are not declining because the South African government has won the fight against violent crime. Farm murders are declining because rural communities have largely stopped waiting for government to protect them.

That distinction is critical.

If we credit government for a trend it did not create, we risk neglecting the very community initiatives that are preventing murders and saving lives.

The murder figure, on its own, tells only part of the story.

Not Ordinary Crime

Last year, AfriForum documented 184 farm attacks, affecting more than 300 victims. These were not ordinary burglaries. Victims were shot, stabbed, beaten, tortured, tied up, and left fighting for their lives. Elderly farmers and their spouses remained among the most vulnerable targets.

Many of these attacks could easily have ended in murder.

Often, the difference between a murder statistic and a survivor is measured in minutes.

Minutes in which a neighbour responded to a radio call. Minutes in which a drone located fleeing suspects. Minutes in which trained volunteers arrived before emergency services. Minutes in which a coordinated community response prevented yet another family from becoming part of South Africa’s grim murder statistics.

That is the real story behind the number of 37.

For years, rural communities appealed to government for better protection. Instead, they watched specialised rural policing disappear, the Commando System be dismantled, police resources stretched ever thinner, and farm attacks quietly removed as a national-priority crime.

Eventually, communities reached an unavoidable conclusion: if they wanted to survive, they would have to organise themselves.

That decision has transformed rural safety.

Neighbourhood and Farm Watches

Today, AfriForum supports 177 neighbourhood and farm watches across South Africa. Thousands of volunteers patrol their communities, monitor suspicious activity, coordinate emergency responses, and work alongside law enforcement officers wherever cooperation exists.

And it is important to remember that these volunteers are not security guards.

They are farmers, business owners, teachers, mechanics, retirees, and ordinary citizens who volunteer their evenings, weekends, and public holidays because they refuse to leave their communities defenceless.

Over time, these volunteers have become far more than neighbourhood patrols.

AfriForum has invested heavily in developing specialised capabilities that would once have been regarded as the exclusive domain of professional security structures.

More than 500 proto team members have received advanced training in tactical rural response, coordinated reactions to violent attacks, observation techniques, radio communication, crime scene preservation, and emergency procedures. Their purpose is not to replace the police, but to bridge the critical gap between the moment an attack begins and the moment police eventually arrive.

Technology has become equally important.

AfriForum currently operates 48 drones that assist with surveillance, searches, suspect tracking, and rapid situational awareness across vast rural areas where conventional policing often struggles to respond quickly. Combined with one of South Africa’s largest independent radio communication networks, these resources have fundamentally changed how communities respond to violent crime.

None of this happened by accident.

Nor was it funded by government.

Every drone, every radio, every vehicle, and every piece of equipment exists because ordinary South Africans decided that protecting their communities could no longer be someone else’s responsibility.

The lesson is remarkably simple.

Community investment saves lives. Every additional volunteer who receives training increases local capacity. Every new neighbourhood watch extends a community’s reach. Every drone provides another set of eyes over isolated farms. Every radio strengthens communication when seconds matter most. Every proto team member creates another opportunity for a family to survive an attack that, only a few years ago, might have ended in tragedy.

This is why focusing exclusively on the number of murders misses the point entirely.

The real success story is not that the threat has disappeared.

It hasn’t.

Organised Communities

The success story is that organised communities have become significantly better at preventing the worst possible outcome.

None of this means government should escape accountability.

The state still carries the constitutional responsibility to protect every South African. Yet rural communities continue to face chronic police shortages, limited specialised capacity, and inconsistent response times. Political leaders have also repeatedly failed to acknowledge the uniquely violent nature of many farm attacks or to unequivocally condemn inflammatory slogans such as ‟Kill the Boer, kill the farmer.”

These failures remain deeply concerning but they no longer define the entire story.

The more important story is what determined citizens have accomplished despite them.

South Africa’s farming communities have demonstrated that organised civil society can make an extraordinary difference when equipped with the right training, technology, and leadership.

The decline in farm murders is not evidence that rural safety no longer deserves attention. It is evidence that community-driven safety works. Imagine what could be achieved if these proven initiatives were expanded into every vulnerable rural community across South Africa.

The question is no longer whether community action saves lives. The evidence already answers that.

The real question is how many more lives could be saved if communities had access to even greater resources, better training, and stronger support.

Jacques Broodryk is AfriForum’s chief spokesperson for community safety.