Home Current News South African white farmers and rival black protesters face off outside court...

South African white farmers and rival black protesters face off outside court hearing over farm murder case

67

South African white farmers and rival black protesters face off outside court hearing over farm murder caseWhite South African farmers and rival Black protesters hurled abuse and threats at each other on Friday ahead of a court hearing in a murder case that has exposed still simmering racial tensions 26 years after the end of apartheid. The killing of Brendan Horner, a white man whose body was found tied to a pole at his farm in Free State province, sparked riots at the start of this month, and prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to make a statement urging South Africans to “resist attempts… to mobilise communities along racial lines”. The farmers, who accuse the government of failing to protect them from violent crime, arrived in pick-up trucks ahead of the court hearing in the central town of Senekal for Horner’s two suspected killers. The farmers mostly wore khaki shirts and shorts, a few wore military outfits, and at least one was armed. A group on motorbikes sporting long beards drove through Senekal, a trading town surrounded by dry, hilly countryside, some waving flags with crosses on. “We are getting tired now of all the farm murders,” said Geoffrey Marais, 30, a livestock trader from Delmas, where a woman was strangled to death two weeks ago. “Enough is enough. They (the government) must start to prioritise these crimes.”

Source: yahoo.com/news