Key witness to continue testimony in pig farm murder trial
A man who testified how he and his boss shot two women who were scavenging for food on a Limpopo farm and fed their bodies to pigs is expected to continue with his testimony at the Polokwane high court on Wednesday.
Last week Adrian Rudolph de Wet, 21, became the second state witness in the case that laid bare how some Limpopo communities battling to put food on the table used to go to a pig farm where they picked up the expired food meant for Zachariah Johannes Olivier’s pigs and took it home to feed their families.
In his testimony, de Wet said Olivier was not happy that people were “stealing” his pigs’ food.
“I think the incident happened because Olivier was fed up with people who come to steal the dairy products and piglets and also because the farm was facing bankruptcy.”
Then last year, on the evening of August 17, Maria Makgatho, 45, and Lucadia Ndlovu, 34, were among a group of people who had gone to the farm to get the expired food when he and Olivier shot them.
I think the incident happened because Olivier was fed up with people who come to steal the dairy products and piglets and also because the farm was facing bankruptcy.
Adrian Rudolph de Wet
The others fled, but Makgato and Ndlovu were killed, and their bodies were thrown into a pigsty.
“We put the bodies in the pigsty because the intention was to dispose of them and conceal any evidence.”
“We knew that pigs would eat anything when they are hungry. On Tuesday the bodies had missing parts, and I think they were eaten by pigs,” de Wet testified.
De Wet, Olivier and Zimbabwean national William Musora were later arrested and charged with, among others, murder and attempted murder.
However, the defence said people going to Olivier’s farm to get the expired dairy products meant for his pigs was something that was well organised and happened on a regular basis.
Olivier had not given anyone consent to enter the farm and collect the dairy products and they were trespassing, they argued.
De Wet became a state witness, and charges against him were dropped while Olivier and Musora are on trial at the Polokwane high court.
Musora also faces a charge of being an undocumented immigrant. On the other hand, Olivier has pleaded not guilty to charges of employing an undocumented immigrant who does not possess a work permit.
Sowetan
