KZN farm killing: Cele confident police will ‘crack this one’

The Minister of Police Bheki Cele has assured the farming community of Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal that they will soon make arrests in the killing of a couple in nearby Normadien.

Glen Rafferty and his wife Vida were shot dead on their farm on the evening of Saturday, 29 August 2020. The perpetrators are believed to have fled the scene in the couple’s vehicle, which was later recovered.

However, the motive for their murder remains unknown at this stage as the couple’s nephew said none of their valuables, including money and keys to a safe, were taken.

In the wake of the incident, Cele met with the community on Wednesday, 2 September 2020.

The community highlighted a range of problems within the policing system, which the minister said would be addressed.

Cele: ‘It seems like we are on the right direction’

Cele said the investigating officer assigned to the case has managed to crack previous farm killings which rocked the area in 2019 and was confident he would also make a breakthrough in the latest matter.

“It seems like we are on the right direction…we hope that soon one would be able to crack this one”, he said.

The minister has urged the community to not put too much pressure on the police to nab the suspects, but has assured that they would soon make progress

While the community have told Cele they have a good working relationship with police, they have also expressed concern over the lack of resources.

The local police station currently has 28 officers as well as nine vehicles.

The minister said they would be roping in relevant structures in the farming community in finding a resolution to inadequate resources in policing. Cele said they would be returning to the area in two to three weeks.

One resource that we have to work hard on is a working relationship with all sectors of the community, the farmers themselves, the dwellers and all other structures. That’s why we’re coming back here.

Rural Safety Strategy

Cele has also admitted that they had been slow in fully implementing the rural safety strategy, but insists they are making strides.

“We haven’t really rolled it out in the speed that we’re supposed to do…we have to work together with the community and ourselves to roll it out even in the smaller places like this”, he further said.

The minister said he believed that the plan would work well, once it is properly implemented.

The plan is aimed at actively countering farm attacks in rural communities, with help from various stakeholders, including police.