Man given 169 years for race murders

A white South African teenager who killed four black people, including a three-month-old baby, in a racially motivated shooting spree has been sentenced to 169 years in prison.

A court in North West province imposed the sentence on Johan Nel, 19, after he pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition in connection with the shootings on 14 January in a shanty town near Swartruggens. The prison terms handed down for the individual charges will run concurrently. One of the survivors of the attack, which also wounded 11 people, testified in the trial that Nel had shouted racial epithets as he opened fire on residents. Nel's defence lawyer argued that the shooting was spurred by his client's anger over the frequent murders of white farmers and small landowners since the end of apartheid in 1994 and by fears that his family could face the same fate. Whites were insulated from crime during the apartheid era and they were rarely prosecuted for committing crimes against blacks.