The killing of Brendan Horner, a white man whose body was found tied to a pole at his farm in Free State province, sparked riots at the start of this month, and prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to appeal to South Africans to "resist attempts ... to mobilise communities along racial lines".

The farmers outside the courthouse in the town of Senekal accused the government of failing to protect them from violent crime. Their opponents, from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), complained about what they see as the continued domination of South Africa's economy by whites, while many Black South Africans remain as poor as they did under apartheid.