Tensions as suspects in South Africa farm murder case appear in court

Emotions ran high on Friday as two Black suspects appeared in a South African court over the murder of a white farmer which has once again sparked racial tensions 26 years after the end of apartheid.

A barbed-wire fence ringed the courthouse in the central town of Senekal. Also, police and a water cannon were deployed as opposing groups of white farmers and Black activists gathered near the site.

The killing of Brendin Horner, a white man whose tortured body was found tied to a pole near his farm in the 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 for Horner’s two suspected killers. The farmers mostly wore khaki shirts and shorts – a few wore military outfits.

‘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.

Reports say while farmers deny the issue is about race, but about their safety and that of their workers, the issue had ‘racial undertones’.

Skirmishes were seen between the two groups throughout the course of the day as racial slurs were being thrown.

The left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who represent poor Black South Africans who feel left out of the country’s post-apartheid prosperity, staged a countermarch attended by thousands of protesters wearing trademark red shirts and berets in the town centre.

Police separated the two groups with razor wire in one street, but they regrouped and faced off in another area as police helicopters hovered overhead. Despite the tensions, there were no reports of violence.