- Title: South African white farmers, Black protesters face off over farm murder case
- Date: 16th October 2020
- Summary: MALEMA SINGING EFF SUPPORTERS SINGING WITH MALEMA
- Embargoed: 30th October 2020 16:41
- Keywords: Brendan Horner EFF Malema South Africa killings protest violence white farmers
- Location: SENEKAL, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: SENEKAL, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Africa,Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA002D0DPETJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: White South African farmers and Black protesters hurled abuse and threats at each other on Friday (October 16) as a court sat for a 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". In Delmas, a white woman farmer was strangled to death two weeks ago.
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.
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.
Police separated the two groups with razor wire in one street, but despite the noisy standoff there was no violence.
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.
Claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa have gained traction among white supremacist groups across the world, and in 2018 they even caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who in a Tweet pledged to investigate South African farm murders.
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