A tense standstill between white farmers and Black activists took over the South African town of Senekal on Friday as two men accused of killing a white farm manager were to appear in court.
What We Know:
- More than 100 police watched the area in front of the courthouse in the Free State province and applied barbed wire to separate the rival groups.
- Sekwetjie Mahlamba and Sekola Matlaletsa made an appearance in the justice court on charges of murdering Brendin Horner, 21, on Oct. 1. Their bail petition was delayed until Oct. 20.
- About 250 white farmers rallied to protest the killing, stating that police do not appropriately protect white farmers. At an earlier court trial last week, a group of white farmers attacked the court and burned a police car.
- The country’s leftist opposite party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, assembled about 1,000 of its supporters to confront the white farmers in front of the court. They sang songs and shouted catchwords calling for South Africa’s land to be returned to Black residents. Some supporters were dressed in the EFF party’s red uniforms and berets.
- Although most white farmers and organizations representing them have called for farm killings to be made a top crime, the government contends that white farmers are not being attacked, stating the violence is a consequence of South Africa’s relatively high crime rate. South Africa has one of the essential crime statistics in the world, with a murder frequency of just over 58 deaths a day.
- White farmers owned a great deal of South Africa’s best farmland due to the eviction of Black farmers when a white minority governed the country. Although South Africa now has majority rule, land ownership remains a contentious issue, with parties like the EFF prompting the government to take white-owned land without compensation and return it to Black families.
The Senekal murder has also raised the debatable issue of land ownership in the country.
