So when Smit was killed in June 2019, some people saw the case as evidence of targeted attacks against white farmers, a rallying point among white minority rights groups and their allies in the US who claim that white farmers are killed at higher rates than other South Africans. That narrative has been upended in this case, after the arrest of three people on murder charges, including Zurenah Smit, 54, Smit’s second wife. Advertisement

A white farmer’s murder was deemed a racial issue. Then police arrested his widow