This morning it was reported that President Jacob Zuma has said that farm attacks in the country are not racially motivated. While it may appear that attacks taking place on the farms of white commercial farmers are racially motivated, this was not the case. These crimes should be “viewed within the context of our country’s high crime statistics.”
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.