This story echoes like an apartheid-style murder and I watched, perplexed, on Sunday as certain subcultures of the Twitter feed buzzed with excitement at the possibility of a racial incident. This murder went largely ignored, surprisingly, given the magnitude of the violence committed in such a heinous act.

It is common knowledge that the race card will be featuring on and off in South Africa’s news for some time to come. It’s becoming a bit like the directional change card from the card game UNO – it comes up a lot.

I suppose it was also slightly unfortunate that mainstream news was dominated by some rather large events this past weekend, which wouldn’t have helped this story either, but never the less, it must be told.

North West police have stated that a farmer was murdered, and his corpse dragged behind his bakkie, outside Ottosdal in the North West on Saturday night.

Brigadier Thulani Ngubane explained on Sunday:

At about 8pm three suspects entered a 49-year-old farmer’s house… They held him at gunpoint while they ransacked the house for money.

They shot him in the chest, the back, and in the head, then used the farmer’s bakkie to drag him for about 1.2km before the bakkie rolled.

The Freedom Front Plus has named the farmer Andre van der Merwe and, according to Ngubane, his body was still tied to the bakkie when police arrived.

Details are vague but one of the alleged murderers was arrested at the scene and then led police to his two accomplices. It was also suspected that some cattle had been stolen in the attack.

The accused will appear in court today.

[Source: IOL]