Slaughter in South Africa – Looking for the Common Denominator

Two seemingly different issues, the slaughter of rhino and the slaughter of white farmers, but, are they so different? They both, on the surface seem to be JUST about money, the value of the rhino horn and then household goods stolen. The reason they are linked together, in my mind anyhow, is the senseless violence, nay, the absolutely inhuman acts that are common in both.

The rhino are not merely shot dead, a lot of the time they are drugged and the horn is hacked out while the animal is alive. When the animal awakens it can stagger around, confused and in great pain for hours before it dies. Then if they animal has a calf, often the calf is mutilated with a panga, not killed, and also left to die a slow and agonizing death.
Here is a report from an APU person.
STTU Report. Please note we do not disclose the names of our team members. This report is a direct copy from member x
“Xxx and xx where counting Rhinos on said farm when they noticed a rhino down on one of the plains, as they circled closer xxx saw that the animal was still moving. They landed and he walked to closer to the animal, only to be met by one of the most horrific scenes. A Rhino calf aprox. 2 years old, horn hacked of and back broken with a panga, he was still alive and crying, tears was streaming down his face as he tried to get up with all his might but could not because of his severed spine. ( Images like these HAUNT us for the rest of our life’s). XxX started looking for spoor as the manager(owner?) Had to do what needed to be done to put the animal out of his misery. Once spoor was confirmed he arranged for back-up from Thaba. Lephalale SAPS requested help from Thaba SAPS and my self and xxx lifted off just after 2pm en route to the farm. Upon our arrival we met up with xxx and some of the managers on the ground, after spoor was confirmed we started following them. It was clear that they were somewhat disoriented and was walking in circles. As soon as they got their heading they set of running some distance through open feld only to slow to a walking pace as the got to cover. Our last tracks was aprox 800meters from the tar road. Farmers in the area closed down all roads to limit their movement. Unfortunately we had to stop. The heli’s we where using had to return to thaba before nightfall. One of the local farmers who has also lost an animal in the last week, assured us that he will fly as to any scene as long as the owner of the property covers his fuel cost. This will cut our response time dramatically and combined with the thermal camera on the drone we expect to start seeing more and more arrest of these inhumane monsters we are hunting. It’s been a hellish 11days so far, definitely the worst we’ve had.”

In the case of the “farm murders” as they have become known, there is a striking similarity of the appalling and unnecessary violence. The criminals do not just kill or disable the victims, they rape and torture then, sometimes for hours and steal very little.  Here are just two reports out of literally hundreds.

“Mbombela – A 78-year-old woman has been tortured and beaten to death with a hot clothes iron in her home in Dullstroom, Mpumalanga. The body of Johanna (Jo) Moore was found in her home on Thursday morning with serious burn wounds to her face and both arms. According to forensic experts, it looked as if her attackers had crushed her head with the same iron.”

“Free State farmer Attie Potgieter was stabbed and cut 151 times and took “many minutes” to die, while his wife and daughter were cut and shot in the head and neck, the Bloemfontein High Court heard on Wednesday.
“The deceased was tortured to death,” pathologist Dr Robert G Book said, when asked by State prosecutor Jannie Botha on his first impressions of Attie Potgieter’s body.”

So I have to ask, firstly, what type of people can do this? Then, what is the object of causing such horror? It seems to me to be a deliberate thought out process, in both cases to simply kill, take, and run would be the logical way to conduct both crimes.

In looking for a common denominator amongst those criminals caught some of the questions asked.

Are they the same nationality? No.
Do they all belong to one political or religious group? No
Are they all of one tribal back ground. No.
Are they all in the pay of one organization? Hard to say, but seems not.

Unfortunately after a whole list of all the questions I only found two common factors.
They are all young males.
They are all black.