These Are Not Gentle People: As heard on BBC R4 as "BLOOD LANDS"

Since early 2016 South Africans have become gripped by a trial that has been taking place in the small town of Parys, south of Johannesburg, where group of white farmers are accused of murdering two black farmhands. The white farmers say it was a question of self-defence: the two black labourers were threatening them and their families. The black community claim that the farmhands had simply gone to the farm to ask for unpaid wages. The case is a microcosm of the racial, political, and financial tensions that are increasingly worrying South Africans, but also a gripping character-driven tale of grief, fear, and anger in a small-town community. Andrew Harding, the BBC's Africa correspondent, has been following this case closely, interviewing everyone involved, from the accused white farmers, to the bereaved family of the black farmhands, to the policemen and detectives on the trail of the truth (or not).