Killing of Brendin Horner

Brendin "Choppie" Horner, born around 1999, worked as a farm manager for the Bloukruin Estate near Paul Roux in South Africa's Free State province. He was reported missing on 1 October 2020 by his girlfriend. After an overnight search, his body was discovered the following morning by his father, Robbie Horner, and a colleague, Jaco Kleingeld, roughly 400 metres from his home on the DeRots farm. A knife had been placed atop his cap near the site.

Horner was found tied to a metal fence post with a girdle and a woven black rope around his neck. He had sustained stab wounds to his head, face, shoulder, arm and hands, and showed signs consistent with torture and strangulation. Injuries to his fists suggested he had fought back, while scrape marks on his body indicated he had been dragged. An autopsy determined strangulation as the cause of death.

Security camera footage placed Horner's Toyota Hilux pickup truck in the Fateng Tse Ntsho township on the evening he is believed to have been killed. The vehicle was later found abandoned 15 km away at Duikfontein farm along the N5 route to Bethlehem, with blood believed to belong to two different men found inside. Witnesses reported seeing three men with blood-stained clothing near the murder scene the following morning. On 3 October 2020, police arrested two suspects, Sekwetje Isaiah Mahlamba, 32, and Sekola Piet Matlaletsa, 44, in Fateng Tse Ntsho; their clothing and shoes, which were bloodstained, were sent for forensic testing.

In court proceedings, Judge Deon van Rooyen found a prima facie case against Mahlamba, who was denied bail. Matlaletsa, who had a lengthy record of prior convictions, was released on bail, though he was subsequently rearrested on an unrelated stock theft charge. Separately, a man named André Pienaar, then 51, was charged in connection with allegedly inciting unrest during court proceedings on 6 October 2020; a magistrate initially denied him bail, but the Free State High Court later overturned that ruling and set bail at R15,000.

The case drew national attention and heightened tensions around farm attacks in South Africa. Protests and unrest occurred outside the Senekal Magistrate's Court, including the overturning and burning of a police vehicle and attempts by protesters to reach the holding cells. Far-right groups characterized Horner's killing as an example of "white genocide," a claim publicly denounced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who called the killing "an appalling act of cruelty" while rejecting the framing of it as a racially motivated hate crime.

In November 2021, the court ruled that DNA samples taken from the crime scene did not match either of the two accused men, and Mahlamba and Matlaletsa were acquitted, as the evidence could not link them to Horner's killing. <parameter name="timeline">[{"date": "2020-10-01", "event": "Brendin Horner is reported missing by his girlfriend."},{"date": "2020-10-02", "event": "Horner's body is found tied to a fence post near DeRots farm outside Paul Roux by his father and a colleague."},{"date": "2020-10-03", "event": "Police arrest suspects Sekwetje Isaiah Mahlamba and Sekola Piet Matlaletsa at Fateng Tse Ntsho township."},{"date": "2020-10-06", "event": "Suspects appear at Senekal Magistrate's Court; unrest breaks out, including a police vehicle being overturned and set on fire; André Pienaar is denied bail after alleged incitement."},{"date": "2020-10-16", "event": "Bail hearing prompts clashes between the Economic Freedom Fighters and farmers outside the courthouse."},{"date": "2021-11", "event": "Court acquits Mahlamba and Matlaletsa after DNA evidence fails to link them to Horner's murder."}]