{"id":13784,"date":"2012-08-22T15:06:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/south-african-farmhand-jailed-for-life-for-terreblanche-murder\/"},"modified":"2012-08-22T15:06:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:06:15","slug":"south-african-farmhand-jailed-for-life-for-terreblanche-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-african-farmhand-jailed-for-life-for-terreblanche-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"South African farmhand jailed for life for Terre’blanche murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Aug 22 (Reuters) – A South African court
\nsentenced a black farmhand to life in prison on Wednesday for
\nthe axe murder of Eugene Terre’blanche, a white supremacist
\nprominent during the dying years of apartheid.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Mahlangu killed Terre’blanche over a pay dispute in
\nApril 2011 at the white farmer’s home in Ventersdorp, about 125
\nkm (80 miles) west of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge John Horn said the attack was not racially motivated.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Many South Africans see Terre’blanche as a relic from a
\nbygone era and his murder did little to stir racial tension.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the case has served as a reminder of the bitter
\nhistorical divisions in a country now dubbed the “Rainbow
\nNation” and ruled by the African National Congress, the party
\nthat helped end apartheid in 1994.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Terre’blanche, a burly man known for his thick white beard
\nand fiery rhetoric, led the hardline supremacist Afrikaner
\nResistance Movement, known by its Afrikaans acronym AWB.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Its members adopted military uniforms and flags with a
\nsymbol reminiscent of the Nazi swastika, and called for an
\nall-white homeland in post-apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A small group of his armed supporters attempted a coup in
\nthe black-run “homeland” of Bophuthatswana shortly before the
\nfirst all-race elections in April 1994 but retreated after
\nmeeting resistance from security forces.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Graphic images of three AWB men being shot dead on a road by
\na Bophuthatswana policeman at point-blank range marked the end
\nof any AWB pretensions to be a serious military force.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A second man, who was a minor at the time of Terre’blanche’s
\nmurder, was found guilty of housebreaking in Ventersdorp and
\ngiven a suspended sentence.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Mahlangu and his co-accused broke into
\nTerre’blanche’s home, where they found the 71-year-old asleep
\nand hacked him to death with an axe. <\/p>\n

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Peroshni Govender; Editing by
\nAlistair Lyon)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG Aug 22 (Reuters) – A South African court sentenced a black farmhand to life in prison on Wednesday for the axe murder of Eugene Terre’blanche, a white supremacist prominent during the dying years of apartheid. Chris Mahlangu killed Terre’blanche over a pay dispute in April 2011 at the white farmer’s home in Ventersdorp, about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}