A South African court is ordering four white former students to pay fines for a video they made humiliating black university employees.

The case has prompted bitter protests that racism remains entrenched in South Africa more than a decade after the end of apartheid-era rule.

The Bloemfontein court on Friday ordered the four to pay $2,720 (20,000 South African rand) each and imposed a six-month jail term suspended on condition of good behavior for five years.

The men had pleaded guilty to charges of illegally and deliberately injuring another person's dignity. The video, made in 2007, showed the five employees being forced to consume food and drinks that appeared to be tainted with urine. The students later described it instead as a "harmless" liquid.

-AP