News — farmer

White South African farmers and Black protesters hurled abuse and threats at each other on Friday during 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 an appeal to South Africans to "resist attempts... to mobilise communities along racial lines".

The farmers outside the courthouse in the central town of Senekal accused the government of failing to protect them from violent crime, while their opponents, from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), complained about what they see as the continued domination of South Africa's economy by whites.

"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."

The EFF's firebrand leader Julius Malema sat inside the courtroom to show support for the two murder suspects who filed a request for bail during Friday's hearing. The judge adjourned the case until Oct. 20.

"I'm here because of white people... taking advantage of us," said EFF supporter Khaya Langile, who came from the Johannesburg township of Soweto to join the rally.

NO VIOLENCE

Police separated the two groups with razor wire in one street, but despite the noisy standoff there was no violence.

"There have been indications of tensions but by and large all of them (the rival groups) took a decision that they did not want to see violence. That is a good thing," State Security minister Ayanda Dlodlo said outside the court.

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 emblazoned with crosses.

The supporters of the EFF, which represents poor Black South Africans who feel left out of the country's post-apartheid prosperity, wore their trademark red shirts and berets.

Murders of white farmers make up a tiny fraction of the total in South Africa, which has the world's fifth highest murder rate. In the 2019/20 financial year there were 21,325 murders across the country, of which 49 were white farmers, according to police statistics.

The farmers also feel threatened by a government plan to expropriate white-owned land without compensation as part of an effort to redress economic inequalities that remain stark a quarter of a century after the end of apartheid. Roughly 70% of privately-owned farmland in South Africa is owned by whites, who make up less than 9% of the country's population of 58 million.

Two white farmers, who forced a terrified black man they caught on their land into a coffin and threatened to throw in a snake and burn him alive, were sent to prison today for attempted murder.

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson were also sentenced for kidnapping, assault with GBH and intimidation in a trial that highlighted the deep racial divisions in South Africa.

The pair were sentenced to a combined 35 years after a court was shown a horrific two-minute long video of them threatening their victim, trapped inside a coffin, as he pleaded for his life.

Dozens of extra armed police officers were drafted in to keep law and order both inside and outside the court, after fears of violence breaking out if the sentence had not been a long prison term for them both.

The two farmers who pleaded not guilty were given two months bail to put their affairs in order after being found guilty by Judge Segopotje Mphahlele at Middelburg High Court sitting in the Magistrates Court.

The court is in Mpumalanga Province in the east of South Africa where the farm was based.

Mr Mlotshwa appeared before Judge Mphahlele and said he thought the farmers should be jailed for 15 years.

While the victim also said he was due compensation for his ordeal of R400,000 (£22,750). 

The attackers' defence lawyers requested the judge show mercy and give them non-custodial sentences.

But prosecutor Robert Molokoane said the whole country was watching adding: 'They had no respect for the law as they took the law into their own hands. They took the video to show what they do with the black man.'

He said that the offences opened old wounds as they were racially motivated.

In August both were convicted after Mr Mlotshwa's ordeal in the coffin was shown to the court on a big screen. 

They were also caught on video of threatening to throw a snake in the coffin with their terrified prisoner.

When the footage went viral on social media last year it triggered national outrage and near rioting. Ultimately leading to the arrest of the two accused, who were remanded in custody for their own safety after getting death threats.

Mr Mlotshwa wept in court when the video was shown and his mother was so distressed she left the courtroom.

'Please don't kill me,' Mlotshwa is heard begging the two white men while being forced into the coffin

'Why shouldn't we, when you are killing our farm?' one replied.

The two claimed that they had caught Mr Mlotshwa with stolen copper cables trespassing on private property. They said he threatened to return at night and burn down their crops and murder their wives and children.

To scare him from carrying out his threat they said they put him in the coffin and threatened to burn him alive in the hope that he would be too frightened to return.

Mr Mlotshwa did not report the incident and only went to police when the video went viral months later.

The footage caused shock in the court with many in the public gallery in tears, with some forced to leave in distress.  

Activists from political parties, including the ruling African National Congress and the main opposition Democratic Alliance and the EEF rallied outside court and attended each day of the trial in force.

Mr Mlotshwa broke down in tears many times during his evidence claiming he was kidnapped as he took a short cut across their farm into town to by provisions for his mother to sell at her shop.

The farmers claimed he was a thief and trespasser.

Mr Mlotshwa claimed he was beaten and then driven to a barn where he was put in a coffin.

The victim describing the coffin attack told the packed courtroom: 'Accused Number 2 (Jackson) opened the coffin and told me to get into it. Accused Number 1 (Oosthuizen) told me he would shoot me if I ran away.

'I refused to get into the coffin and they both assaulted me with their fists all over my body.

'I was so scared and I kept asking them what was happening but none of them answered me. I then thought it better to get into the coffin as I could no longer endure the pain' he said.

Mr Mlotshwa denied making any threats to the two farmers.