He went inside to find blood all over the floor. “I found them lying there, tied together, next to each other,” Mr Engelbrecht told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent.

“My dad was lying on his back, my mother was lying face down, hands tied behind her back. My dad had a big gaping hole the size of a golf ball in his throat. Their throats were slit, they were tortured. I found an iron cord around my mother’s neck. They tortured her.”

The murders of 78-year-old Fanie and 74-year-old Colleen Engelbrecht were just the latest in an escalating series of attacks on white farmers in South Africa that have generated worldwide controversy.

Earlier this year, [Australia’s] Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton sparked outrage for floating the idea of fast-tracked humanitarian visas, saying they faced “horrific circumstances” and needed help from a “civilised country”.

In Tuesday night’s special report, ABC journalist Jonathan Holmes questioned whether the murders are politically or racially motivated, as claimed by the Afrikaner minority, or are just a “fact of life in one of the world’s most violent societies”.

“My dad always said it’s not if, it’s when,” Mr Engelbrecht said.

“He knew it was coming. We all know it’s coming. It’s just a question of when. These farm attacks are partially motivated by money and partially by politics. Not only do they kill, but the way they kill. They torture you and hurt you. This is hate, this is political hate.”