Joubert Conradie, wine farmer from Klapmuts, Stellenbosch🕯️

A Tribute & A Warning

In Memory of
Joubert Conradie

Klapmuts, Stellenbosch  ·  Killed 24 October 2017

---

Wine farmer. Husband. Father. Gone too soon.

Joubert Conradie was a wine farmer from Klapmuts in Stellenbosch — a man of the soil, a man of purpose. On 24 October 2017, in the early hours of the morning, thugs attacked his home and shot him dead. He never saw another sunrise on the vineyards he loved. He left behind his wife Marlene and their two children, a family that will never be whole again.

This is not just a story about one man. It is a story about what South Africa is becoming — and what it will lose if it does not wake up.

How can we have peace, jobs, and food while we are killing the very farmers who feed us?

A Nation Under Siege

Farmers in South Africa do not feel safe — and they have every reason to feel that way. Farm attacks are not random acts of madness. They are a symptom of a country where violent crime has been allowed to spiral without serious consequence. When farmers cannot sleep at night, when they cannot work their land without fear, the entire nation suffers. Unemployment grows. Poverty deepens. Food security crumbles.

No investor will bring their money, their factories, or their jobs to a country where crime reigns unchecked. Alongside farm attacks, xenophobic violence, hatred-fuelled marches, the looting of foreign-owned shops and businesses — these are not isolated incidents. Together, they paint a picture that drives away the very investment South Africa desperately needs.

Recent Acts of Violence & Unrest

• Mossel Bay, Western Cape — Five foreign nationals and one South African boy were killed.
• Springs, Johannesburg — Hundreds of Zimbabweans displaced in xenophobic violence.
• KwaZulu-Natal — Foreign nationals and South Africans mistaken as foreigners beaten in the streets.

The Cost of Inaction

The situation is going to get worse before it gets better — unless decisive action is taken. The South African government must take violent crime seriously. A murderer who is back in society within seven years is a cycle that never ends. The blood of victims like Joubert Conradie demands better. The South African government must implement the death penalty for violent crime. If you take a life, you forfeit your place in society. If you kidnap or rob, you forfeit your place in society. That is not cruelty — that is justice.

On Marches of Hatred

The freedom to march must never become a licence to destroy. When marches leave businesses looted, people beaten, and livelihoods in ashes, they are no longer protests — they are acts of violence. Banning marches that openly promote hatred is not oppression. It is the protection of the peace and dignity that every South African deserves.

A Nation That Forgets Its Farmers

Crime does not create jobs. Every farmer killed, every foreign business burned, every investor scared away is another door slammed shut on South Africa’s future. Poverty grows not because of a lack of resources, but because of a failure of safety and order. The nation that refuses to protect those who feed it will one day find itself without food.

And let us not forget: a nation that does not respect immigrants is a nation that will one day become an immigrant nation. South Africa was built by people from many places. It will only be saved by people from many places — working together, protected equally, valued equally.

We support peace and peaceful resolutions to all problems. But peace requires justice — and justice requires courage.

Rest in Peace, Joubert Conradie

To Marlene, and to their children — your grief is shared by all who believe in a South Africa worth fighting for. Joubert Conradie did not die so that politicians could look away. He died so that the rest of us might open our eyes.

May his memory never be forgotten. May it instead be the fire that demands change.

✦   ✦   ✦

Support Farming & Job Creation in Zimbabwe

We continue to work for peace, food security, and employment through Makumbirofa Farms. Please support our farming projects and help create jobs where they are needed most.

Donate via PayPal

makumbirofac@gmail.com