A white South African farmer was jailed for life today for feeding a black worker to lions, ending a racially charged case which highlighted abuse of rural black labourers.
Witnesses said Mark Scott-Crossley - who got married in a tearful ceremony just before being sentenced - got life and black labourer Simon Mathebula 15 years, partly suspended, for their role in a murder which shocked the crime-hardened nation.
The grisly killing of 41-year-old farm worker Nelson Chisale provoked an outcry in South Africa where, more than a decade after the end of apartheid rule, some white farmers are still accused of abusing and exploiting black workers.
"Their crime, of beating him to the point of death and then throwing him to lions was one of the most cruel and despicable acts ever to have been inflicted on a worker by an employer and deserved nothing less than the maximum sentence," trade union federation COSATU said in a statement.
Mr Chisale's niece Fetsang Jafta said the family was "much relieved" after the sentences were handed down in a packed courtroom in Phalaborwa, near the Kruger National Park.
"That's what we expected. They are fair," she said. Scores of people inside and outside the court greeted the sentences with cheers and verbal abuse for Mr Scott-Crossley.
The court ruled in April that Scott-Crossley had held a grudge against Mr Chisale after he complained to the labour authorities.