Five arrested after South African farmer shot and tortured
The attack on Donovan Marx, 50, comes as right-wing groups say there is a genocide of white people - a claim widely discredited.
Five people have been arrested after a South African farmer was shot and tortured
Donovan Marx's family and officials have praised the rapid arrests of suspects tied to the farm attack
South African police have detained five people over a violent assault on a cattle farmer, who was beaten and tortured in what has been called a "senseless and barbaric" act.
Donovan Marx, 50, was attacked during a house robbery on his farm in Ventersdorp, a small town in South Africa's North West province, last Wednesday.
Police said Marx was ambushed as he came home, shot and stabbed, and had his ears cut off in the horrific ordeal.
All five alleged attackers were arrested over the weekend, a development welcomed by Marx's wife and family.
They said the "legal process must [now] take its course".
The shocking attack has sparked widespread anger in a country accustomed to high levels of violence.
Police last week described how the attack on Mark happened.
In a statement, they said a group of masked men armed with guns approached a worker at Mark's house while he was mowing the lawn.
The attackers then demanded to know where Marx was before tying the worker's hands and feet with cable ties.
When Marx returned home, police said two of the suspects allegedly went up to him and shot him in the upper body.
"They [then] dragged him inside the house, tied his hands and feet with cable ties, and allegedly stabbed him", before cutting off his ears.
The suspects then searched the house and took three firearms from a safe before fleeing in Marx's van.
The ordeal ended after the farm worker managed to free himself and call for help.
Marx was taken to hospital, where he remains, but may need prosthetic ears after surgeons were unable to save his own, local news site IOL reported.
South Africa's Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp condemned the attack on Marx, saying there was no "place in our country for such senseless and barbaric acts".
Ian Cameron, chair of parliament's police committee, praised police for the swift arrests and called for a "strong, properly investigated case" to follow.
The five suspects, aged between 26 and 56, are due to appear in local courts on Tuesday and face charges of house robbery, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Some right-wing groups have used such attacks on white farmers, who are often from the Afrikaner community, to claim there is a genocide against white people in the country - a claim that has been widely discredited.
Although the claims have been rejected by every political party in the country, including those representing Afrikaners, US President Donald Trump has repeated them and has offered white Afrikaners asylum in the US.
South Africa's latest crime statistics, covering the period between April and June 2026, do not say how many attacks took place on farms and only recorded one robbery in a rural area.
However, police data show most victims of crime in South Africa, including on farms, are black.