Spotlight: South Africa's New Racial Tensions

Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty

South Africans chant "hero, hero" outside the court in the northwestern town of Ventersdorp on April 6, 2010 as police escort one of the two men charged with the April 4 killing of white supremacist Afrikaner Resistance Movement leader Eugene Terre'Blanche.

A man whose existence was defined by racism and violence, Eugene Terre'Blanche died as he lived. In 1973, in apartheid South Africa, Terre'Blanche founded the militant white-supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement). In 1993, his supporters stormed the venue where talks were taking place between the white South African government and Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) to end white rule. This year, on April 3, the 69-year-old was bludgeoned to death on his farm outside Ventersdorp in the far north of South Africa by, according to press reports, two black workers. Police charged a 28-year-old man and 15-year-old boy with...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!