Four white former university students in South Africa who allegedly forced black campus employees to eat food soaked in urine are going on trial. They face criminal charges after a video of the incident surfaced in 2008. The footage also showed the ex-students instructing five elderly workers to drink beer and perform athletic tasks. Reporters say a national outcry at the time put the University of Free State, which has predominantly white students, at the centre of a racial storm. Court officials confirmed to the BBC that the former students - Danie Grobler, Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe and RC Malherbe - would appear before the Bloemfontein District Court at the start of their trial on Wednesday. Last year, lawyers for two of the students reportedly said the video was "no more than play-acting". The video is believed to have been recorded in protest against the university's plans to integrate black and white students in the same residences. Correspondents say the university has encountered difficulties trying to integrate people from other racial groups. At the time the footage emerged, the institution's rector, Professor Frederick Fourie, expressed shock at the video and strongly condemned it. Anger Black students and workers at the university staged protests calling for the students' expulsion. The video shows five black people allegedly being instructed by a group of white students to down full bottles of beer. The university workers, four women and a man, are then led to a playing field where they are told to display their athletic skills. It is the final extract of the film that most angered members of the public. It shows a white male urinating on food, and then shouting "Take! Take!" in Afrikaans - apparently forcing the campus employees to eat the dirty food, and causing them to vomit. Last year, the South African Institute of Race Relations expressed concern that the incident could threaten general improvements in race relations since the end of apartheid in 1994. Source: BBC