A black worker who was forced into a coffin and tortured for over an hour by two white farm workers was offered cash to drop charges against his attackers, a court has heard.
Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa was beaten so badly he was only able to 'crawl home' and told that he would be killed if he told anyone what happened, prosecutors said.
He was so scared he told no one until video footage of the attack was shared online months later, prompting Mr Mlotshwa to go to the police, the court heard.
The fresh details emerged at Middelberg Magistrates' Court as the two men accused applied for bail for the shocking assault, which they filmed on a phone.
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Yesterday's tense day-long bail hearing heard how Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson savagely beat and tortured their jobless victim for an hour, threatening to burn him alive and feed him to a snake until he was only capable of 'crawling home' once they had let him go.
The white pair's first court appearance two weeks ago sparked fears of a race riot, forcing them to abandon a bid for bail amid threats of revenge.
Scores of noisy protesters returned to the courthouse yesterday to chant outside and pack the public benches.
They tied two white dolls to a plank which they held aloft, singing and dancing around them, taking turns to whack the dolls over the head - in an eerie suggestion of what might befall the defendants if they are granted bail later today.
In court, the investigating officer revealed how Mr Mlotshwa had been bombarded with anonymous threats if he went ahead with the case, and later received an offer of £600 in return for dropping charges against the two men.
Detective Dimakatso Bahula told the court she was convinced the men would 'attempt to interfere' with the case which has revealed the bitter racial divide which continues to blight South Africa more than two decades after the end of apartheid.
The noisy court room fell silent as the distressing film was played, and Mr Mlotshwa's shrieks of panic and pleas for mercy echoed around the room.
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Sitting in the front row of the public gallery, the young victim looked down at his hands, flanked by supporters, as his petrified squeals rang out.
Only a few feet away, the families of Oosthuizen and Jackson looked equally uncomfortable as the aggressive, urgent voices of the men – threatening to pour petrol on their victim and add a snake to the casket in which he flailed around – were clearly heard.
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Detective Bahula said on the day of the attack the two accused had been driving separate vehicles to round up two 'kaffirs' – a racist epithet used to describe black people in South Africa – who were trespassing on land they worked on.
Their first victim was Dalton Sithole who earlier this month spoke exclusively to MailOnline to describe how he was picked up and savagely beaten for taking a shortcut across the employer's property.
After being kicked and punched 'black and blue' by the men, he was then driven off in one of their vehicles in pursuit of Mr Mlotshwa who they had also spotted trespassing.
'I don't want to see a kaffir walking around on my farm,' Oosthuizen told Mr Sithole, the court heard.
After picking up Mr Mlotshwa who told police he was travelling from his shack home - on the edge of the chicken farm where one of the men worked - to the nearest town to buy food, the men ordered their first victim out of the car, before binding Mr Mlotshwa's wrists together with cable ties to the tow bar of their vehicle and driving to the nearby farm where they worked.
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The victim told no-one about the incident until months later, in early November, his brother Thobile saw the video being shared on Facebook, and recognised Mr Mlotshwa.
'Victor was sleeping in his room when his brother came in and showed him the video,' the officer explained, 'and he was so shocked to see it. He was aware that one of the accused had taken a film of the incident.'
Two days later, he made a complaint to police and some days after that Oosthuizen and Jackson turned themselves in.
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