A pre-trial hearing of two South African white men accused of forcing a black man into a coffin is to start on Wednesday, bringing race relations in the country back into the spotlight.
The pair, Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson, were charged in November with assault and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after a video emerged online showing them pushing Victor Mlotshwa into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive in Middelburg, about 160km east of Johannesburg.
The 20-second video, which was widely circulated on social media, shows the victim cowering inside a coffin, wailing as one man pushes a lid on his head and the other threatens to put petrol and a snake inside the coffin.
"The footage will be the main evidence for the prosecution along with Mlotshwa's testimony," Al Jazeera's Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, stated.
The two accused were denied bail in December, with judges at the time describing the attack as an act of "brutal racism".
In November, Mlotshwa told reporters outside the court that he wanted justice.
"They were accusing me of trespassing. They beat me up and forced me into the coffin," he stated.
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| Victor Mlotshwa (centre) says he wants justice [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters] |
'Huge racism'
The degrading attack sparked demonstrations and caused outrage on social media with hundreds of South Africans condemning the men's behaviour under the hashtag #coffinAlive.
It also laid bare racial tensions that endure in the country more than 20 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule, as well as persisting inequalities between black and white South Africans.
"Incidents like this show that there is still huge racism out there; a huge divide, and a total misunderstanding between race groups," Mienke Steytler, of South Africa's Institute of Race Relations, told Al Jazeera.
"With regards to the coffin case, these two young men do have racism ingrained in them."
Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa's 54 million population yet most of the economy remains in the hands of white people, who account for about eight percent of the population.
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| Theo Martins (left) and Willem Oosthuizen first appeared in court in November [File: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters] |
Aljazeera