South African farmers erupt over brutal killings

Chaotic scenes have occurred in South Africa’s Free State province, where farmers have taken to the streets after two brutal killings that have sparked national outrage.

Farmers holding “Boer Lives Matter” banners stormed a court in Senekal city and fired while trying to force their way into cells containing two murder suspects.

A police riot van also overturned and caught fire as thousands of people gathered in front of the Senekal Magistrates Court in the Free State overnight.

It was there that murder suspects Sekwetje Isaiah Mahlamba, 32, and Sekola Piet Matlaletsa, 44, were to appear before a judge.

They are charged with killing 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner, who was tied to a pole and tortured before being repeatedly stabbed and then strangled on remote farmland outside the city of Paul Roux on Friday. .

In another attack 290 kilometers away, a female farm manager was sexually assaulted and strangled by two armed men on her farm.

And, in a third incident, a gang of nine attackers allegedly threatened to rape a farmer’s young children if he did not cooperate.

The series of attacks on white farmers has fueled anger and sparked tense scenes on the streets of Senekal.

Police spokesman Brig Motantsi Makhele told TimesLive that a “rogue group” of farmers broke into the court building and demanded that the suspects be turned over to them.

He said the group damaged court property as they made their way to the cells.

“This group fired two shots, but no one was injured,” he said. “So far the situation is tense but under control.”

The large group carried banners reading “Remember their names” and “Enough is enough.

Brig Makhele told local media that victim Brendin Horner did not come home after finishing work. He was reported missing and his body was found at 6 am the next day.

Chantel Kershaw, 44, was ambushed by two gunmen while helping load a lawnmower onto a truck, The Sun reports.

She was then restrained and strangled in the garage of her farm in Delmas, east of Johannesburg, before flogging her mother, Greta Spiers, 65 with a pistol.

Spiers were immobilized while the farm was ransacked and a maid locked in a bathroom before the criminals fled the scene in the family’s white Chevrolet pickup.

Local neighborhood watch farmers pulled the stolen vehicle off the road in a high-speed chase after being alerted by Spiers and captured the suspects.

A farm worker who was stripped and tied up by the armed robbers was later arrested after the cell phone numbers of the two arrested men were found on his phone.

The three men appeared before the Delmas Court of First Instance on charges of armed robbery, theft and murder. They were denied bail and have been placed in pretrial detention for trial.

In the third incident, Paul da Cruz, his wife and four children, three girls and a boy between the ages of 6 and 18, were attacked on their farm in Westonaria in Gauteng on Friday morning.

Da Cruz told Netwerk24 that his children and his wife were threatened with rape and that he wanted them to undergo trauma therapy as soon as possible.

Agricultural strategist Dr. Jaco De Villiers described the latest killings as part of a “war against food production” in the country and called Horner’s murder a “massacre.”

He told TimesLive: “How do you kill someone and hang them on a pole for all to see? This was a clear message to all farmers. The agricultural killings have to end now.”

Dr. Jane Buys, a safety and risk analyst at Free State Agriculture, told the newspaper: “The senseless killings cannot be allowed with the brutality in which they are executed.

“It is not clear what the motive for this murder is. There can be no justification for killing a person who provides food security. Something must be done to stop it.”

Pressure group Agri SA said that, on average, a farm where a farmer is violently attacked will be abandoned for up to five years until someone takes it and restarts production.

That means dozens of workers and dependents lose their livelihoods, he said.

AfriForum spokesman Marius Muller said farmers need better police protection.

“This is another dark day in the history of South Africa for farmers and those with small holdings and the murder of these two farmers was totally unnecessary,” Muller said.

“These were premeditated and horrific attacks on innocent farmers who care and care for their workers and whose jobs may now be in danger from these killings.”

Every day in South Africa an average of 60 people are killed. An average of 75 farmers are killed in the country each year.

– Additional reporting by Jon Rogers and Jamie Pyatt from The Sun