How S.Africa farm murder sparked violence, then soul-searching

Outside the courthouse during a hearing of the murder suspects groups of whites and blacks faced off. [AFP]

A white farmer's murder in a rural town in early October touched off a series of racially charged events that have drawn comparisons with South Africa's apartheid past, but the truth is far more complex.

Brendin Horner was strangled and tied to a fence near the small farming town of Senekal 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of Johannesburg, the 22-year-old's body discovered on October 2.