Being a white farmer in South Africa is not easy- according to the organization AfriForum, which represents the interests of white farmers, at least 638 attacks against them by the rural black population were registered last year.
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With such a situation at hand, white farmers have begun preparing themselves to survive an assault. Many of them have addressed Idan Abolnik, a former member of the Israeli special forces, who trains them in hand-to-hand combat and weapons handling, Sky News reported. In his two-week course, students learn how to act during an attack and how to fight back.
One of his trainees, Chris Herbst, survived after being shot and stabbed nine times. He claims that the attackers were well-trained. Another student, Marli Swanepoel, told Sky News that white farmers are targeted and murdered, with the elderly being unable to defend themselves at all.
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White farmers, despite being a minority in South Africa, own 72% of farm-worthy land, which causes tensions between them and the black population, who often work on the farms. The South African government recently announced a plan to redistribute land to the black population, despite public concerns that the country might be repeating a similar and unsuccessful experiment by the Zimbabwean government.