Killing of 2 black farm workers exposes S.Africa faultlines

Parys (South Africa) (AFP) - Two black men are beaten to death in the middle of a cattle pasture in South Africa after white farmers hunt them down to avenge an attack on an elderly landowner.

A month later, four of the farmers stand squeezed in the dock of Parys town magistrates court, charged with the double murder.

Outside the court, about 200 black protesters chant "Kill the farmers" at khaki-clad white protesters who vow to defend themselves against what they say is a "genocide" of their people.

The killing last month of Seun Tangasha, 29, and Samuel Tjexa, 35, has lit a tinderbox of anger over racism, crime, poverty and land ownership issues that afflict modern South Africa.

For many blacks, the court case has highlighted the alleged mistreatment of workers by white farmers, who stand accused of forming vigilante groups to carry out extrajudicial murders.

For many whites, it is about how farmers are forced to fight back against a deadly crime wave of “farm attacks” that left many landowners in fear of their lives.

Anna Jubeba, Tangasha's aunt, told AFP that his "family are very angry and very sad" over his killing.

"These farmers must go to jail for life," she said, speaking in their sparsely-furnished house in an impoverished township on the outskirts of Parys.

"The courts see these guys killing black people, but they are let out on bail because they are white. No one has come to help us. The police haven't even come to our house."

The upcoming murder trial will rest on the events of January 6, when Tangasha and Tjexa arrived at an isolated farm where they worked as casual labourers for Lodewikus van der Westhuizen, 73.