Tensions between Black South African and White South African farmers are at an all-time high. Just last month, two white South African farmers were sentenced to a combined 41 years in prison for the murder of a Black teenager. The farmers claim they caught the teen stealing sunflowers.

The farmers were convicted of throwing the 15-year-old boy, Matlhomola Mosweu, off a moving truck in April 2017. Mosweu died after breaking his neck. His death set off riots locally.

“The two farmers — Pieter Doorewaard, 28, and Phillip Schutte, 35 — were found guilty of murder, kidnapping and other charges. Doorewaard was sentenced to 18 years in prison, and Mr. Schutte to 23 years,” the New York Times reported.

One of the reasons the relationship between white South African farmers and Blacks is that nearly 70 percent of South African farms are owned by white farmers. Many Black South Africans want the farms to be distributed equally. And some are taking matters into their own hands. And they point to the Zimbabwe government’s land grab of White-owned farms under Robert Mugabe as an example of what should happen in South Africa.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 51: Bärí A. Williams
Part 2. Jamarlin talks to tech attorney and diversity strategist Bärí Williams about the growing gap in big tech regulations between the U.S. and E.U., and why Democrats have been slow in bangin’ against Silicon Valley greed compared to Wall Street greed in 2008. They also discuss reparations and artificial intelligence being weaponized against Black people.

There have been reports of Blacks actually sieging local White farms and setting up shacks to live in, claiming a severe housing shortage among Blacks and a lack of government support.

In fact, white South Africans still control much of the economy, even after a generation following the end of apartheid.

“Life had barely changed for the men and women in the neighboring township, even a quarter-century after achieving democracy. They still lived in flimsy shacks in cramped quarters,” the New York Times reported.

There was an attempt by the A.N.C. program to purchase land from willing white farmers and hand it over to Black SOuth Africans, but the program was “so tainted by corruption that politicians ended up with more land than the ordinary citizens who were supposed to benefit.”