Murder and mayhem: How South African farming became

Murder and mayhem: How South African farming became a ‘full-scale war’

When armed men broke into their farm in Free State province last month, Mark Regal and his wife were already on high alert. Just the day before, their neighbour and fellow farmer Eddie Hills had died in hospital, a week after being stabbed in a robbery in which his father was tied up and shot. Aware that they too could lose more than just their property, Mrs Regal returned fire and killed one of the intruders, police said. But Mr. Regal, 50, was overpowered

White farmer killed by gang of robbers in South Africa. and killed, the seventh farmer to be murdered in the province in six weeks. The spate of killings has inflamed racial tensions in South Africa, with the Free State’s white farming community accusing the ANC-ruled government of doing little to help. Trouble first flared with last month’s grisly murder of farm mechanic, Brendin Horner, 21, whose body was found tied by a noose to a fence near his cottage. When two suspects appeared in court a week later in the tiny town of Senekal, a white mob stormed the building, attempting to avenge Mr. Horner’s death on the spot. At the following hearing, the protesters – some wearing “Boer

Lives Matter” T-shirts – also faced off against the Economic

The widow of Horner killed by attackers of their farm house Freedom Fighters, a black political party led by the radical politician Julius Malema. Moderates among the farmers have appealed for calm, arguing that the real problem is unchecked criminality, which affects black farmers as well as white. But either way, more than just racial harmony is at stake. Such killings are fuelling a steady exodus of whites from the farming sector, prompting fears that it could go the same way as Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. Here, the problem may be crime rather than state-backed farm invasions, but with around fifty farmers murdered every year, the effect is similar. Farmers block the main road as they stand off against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during the bail application for two men accused of murdering young farm manager Brendin Horner The 30,000 white farmers in South Africa are just a third of the number in pre-apartheid times, many emigrating for safer pastures in Canada and Australia. “Being a farmer is a dangerous career,” said Pierre Vercueil, a prominent member of farming organization Agri SA. By Peta Thornycroft