In South Africa, a high-profile case is being investigated against a farm owner and two of his employees, who are accused of murdering two women, whose bodies were then dumped in a pigsty. The police found their decomposed and partially eaten remains by pigs. About this informs New York Times.
According to the investigation, 45-year-old Maria Makgato and 34-year-old Lucia Ndlovu came to the farm near Polokwane in the northern province of Limpopo in search of food. This farm was known for feeding the pigs with expired food, which was sometimes left for the locals. In mid-August, the women went to the farm after delivering a batch of expired dairy products.
According to Maria Makgato’s niece, this was not the first time her struggling aunt had looked for food at this farm. This time, however, 60-year-old owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier and 19-year-old supervisor Andrian Rudolph De Wet were ready to use force against anyone who trespassed on their territory.
Lucia Ndlovu’s husband, who accompanied the women that day, said he was also shot at but managed to escape by crawling away from the scene and called paramedics. He later informed the police, who found the women’s bodies in the pigsty a few days later.
To date, charges have been brought against three people: the owner of the farm Olivier, his supervisor and the 45-year-old worker William Musor, who helped in the destruction of the bodies. All three remain in custody and a bail hearing has been postponed until November.
The case raised a new wave of racial tension in the country, as Zachariah Olivier is a white farmer and the victims are black women. Representatives of black communities staged mass protests outside the court, demanding that the suspects be denied bail. Families of the victims and the accused gathered inside the courtroom.
The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) called for the farm to be shut down, while the South African Human Rights Commission condemned the killings and called for an anti-racist dialogue.
The tension in the country is only increasing, as several more incidents have happened recently that have aggravated the situation. In particular, in Mpumalanga province, a farmer and his bodyguard were arrested for killing two men for stealing sheep. The bodies of the victims were burned beyond recognition. In another case, a 70-year-old farmer deliberately ran over a six-year-old boy, breaking his legs, for picking an orange on his farm.
