This is the short edition of Morales, first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

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Hello and welcome to Morales on the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander.

Listener Leanne has emailed us from the Czech Republic with a question about her country of birth South Africa.

I'm very worried about the plan often made in some African circles

that the genocide is being carried out against white South Africans

or that white farmers are systematically being killed.

Personally I cannot see it but a very intelligent friend I know seems to believe this.

I have tried to look at the statistics but it is beyond my comprehension.

Would you perhaps help?

Leanne emailed us before the death of Nelson Mandela

but some reports suggest the former South African president's death has stoked the fire of these fears

felt particularly in some right-wing African circles.

One of the most vocal people holding this view is the South African musician Steve Hofmeier.

Here he is being interviewed during a march opposing violence against white people in October.

The statistics Steve Hofmeier has argued in popular Facebook and blog posts

shows why South Africans are in his words being killed like flies.

The problem and the fundamental flaw in his arguments is that he's taking a very race-based view of crime in South Africa.

Julian Rodermeier, editor of fact-checking website AfricaCheck,

which has been tried in the US.

...