The Aida Parker Newsletter - Special Issue (1998): SA's Bloody Road to Ruin
Issue No. 221
Research: Estelle Lombard
September 1998
ONE hopes there are still people in this world who want to know the truth, dreadful as that truth may be. On that assumption, APN has dedicated this entire issue (and increased both its size and print run) to the ongoing, indiscriminate and unspeakably bloodthirsty slaughter of White South African farmers. We do this because, for all practical purposes, we in SA are back to the barbarous Border wars waged by the Ama-Xhosa against the White settlers in the Eastern Cape 200 years ago.
We believe it to be absolutely urgent to focus global attention on the ANC regime’s nonchalant, ho-hum attitude to the vicissitudes suffered by farmers, their families, labour and animals in what the farmers (and many others) believe to be a politically motivated campaign to run them off the land.
That suspicion is rekindled with each murder: and reinforced by Nelson Mandela’s now oft-repeated invitation to Whites to leave the country if they can no longer tolerate the criminal holocaust which his own incomparably incompetent regime has inflicted on us all by its manifest inability or unwillingness to maintain law and order.
The essential point about these particular murders is that many are not clean killings. A great number are extravagantly vicious in their execution, with torture prolonged over many hours (see graphic below).
Purpose of such carnage? Clearly, to create horror and fear among the remaining farming community: a classic communist tactic in any rural war targeted against farmers.
Whatever, it is a repulsive picture. Let’s look at the gory catalogue suffered by SA farmers, mostly White Afrikaners. From January 1 this year to August 31, 104 farmers have been slain in 590 farm attacks. Since May, 1994, when the ANC/SACP took power, there have been some 570 farm murders in 2 421 attacks. Compare that with 39 White farmers killed in Kenya’s Mau Mau uprising in the 1960s and under 300 killed in the 14 years of the Rhodesian war.
The farm attacks are of course not an isolated aberration. They are part and parcel of SA’s astounding crime rate: 40 murders, 73 attempted murders, 136 rapes, 35 hijackings, 176 robberies and 670 housebreakings recorded every day of the year.
All a very far cry from Mandela’s "New SA" born in that short starburst of euphoria in May, 1994, all of it brimming with virtue, hope and promised reconciliation. Today, that dream is well and truly shattered. Peace in SA is an ever-receding mirage.
But it is the non-stop murders of SA’s farmers, Black and White, plus the appalling injuries deliberately inflicted on their cattle and other livestock, which could finally bring this country’s already gravely crippled economy crashing.
This graphic, prepared by an Afrikaans publication from a police medical report, demonstrates how a well-known farmer from the old Eastern Transvaal highveld was murdered when he came under attack from a gang who invaded his farm house. In this case the victim, a widower, was tortured without break for six hours before his killers had done with him. We do not identify him out of respect for his family. Variations on this type of execution have featured in a number of farm slayings.
Yet the outside world, in particular that "great citadel of democracy and freedom," the US, remains blind, deaf and dumb to what is happening here.
Despite all their zealous and sanctimonious denials, Mandela, Mbeki & Co have failed, shamefully and humiliatingly, in their administrative task. As we endlessly stress, they have, in their few short years in power, transformed a once well-ordered, productive, civilised and successful country built with stupendous toil and struggle out of the wild African bush, into a noisome, anarchistic, criminal, AIDS-ravaged cesspool, a country without law, order or justice.
Unless very soon halted, the damage will be irreparable. What we are now seeing is a massive rural disaster, this at a time of rapid population growth. No economy can long survive a near-total breakdown in law and order such as that now overwhelming SA. If public opinion, here and overseas, is not aroused, the results will be catastrophic. The stakes are very high: SA’s very survival.
Till now, the ANC/SACP have largely got away with it because SA whites, living in a constant state of fear, stress and despair, have seemed weary, hopeless, disheartened and disillusioned, frozen into inaction, into an intellectual and moral paralysis. But now, with the odds fast becoming insupportable, the White logjam is at long last showing signs of breaking up. As this is written, so mass demonstrations protesting the farm slaughter are being staged nation-wide by organised agriculture, backed by the huge cooperative movement, labour, business, industry, the churches, taxi organisations, ratepayer forums and others.
It must be emphasised that these people, though deeply angry, are not seeking confrontation. They seek deliverance, not vengeance. What they want is a radical change in government attitudes, anything to jolt the ANC into remedial action. And they want the death sentence reinstated.
The effort is spearheaded by the SA Agricultural Union (SAAU), representing some 40 000 commercial farmers and 45 000 small scale farmers. Apart from the humanitarian aspect, they feel that the ANC and its Communist mentors take little cognisance of agriculture’s great economic importance to SA.
Next to gold and combined minerals, organised agriculture is SA’s second biggest foreign exchange earner. The commercial agricultural sector alone provides employment for 1,2 million workers, about 14% of the economically active population. Counting in the dependants of these workers, agriculture provides a livelihood for some five to six million people, 16% of the country’s total population.
While cash wages on farms are generally lower as opposed to those in urban employment (a worldwide economic phenomena) the families of farm workers are usually housed free, are provided where feasible with light and water, have no transport costs, are usually allocated some land which they can use for their own domestic purposes, while many if not most of their children receive their primary education on farm schools. Well over 5 000 primary schools are sited on farms, providing education for almost 500 000 children.
Alongside this, the cooperative movement is also one of the country’s leading employers. With 1 500 branches countrywide, more than 80% of the total marketing and handling of agricultural products is done through cooperatives, representing an annual turnover of more than R22 billion, total assets of some R13 billion and a net profit of R530 million. Additionally, agriculture provides a market of more than R10 billion a year for manufactured products such as fertiliser, pesticides and veterinary remedies and services, as well as farm equipment.
To date Mandela & Co, quite forgetting that it is the farmers who feed the masses, have shown remarkably little understanding of the magnitude of the threat posed both to national stability and the national economy should agriculture suffer further major setbacks. But, indeed, the crisis is nearing the point where it could soon threaten SA’s status as one of the few remaining African states still self-sufficient in food production and one of only seven countries in the world which are regular food exporters.
The ANC and its more radical wing have obviously not yet cottoned on to the fact that if they do not look after the country’s commercial farmers, they will eventually lose them. So far, not many have left SA, because assets are fixed. But signs of dissatisfaction are there. Young people are farming elsewhere or choosing not to farm at all. Where the facts of life (and particularly death) in SA are concerned, ANC/SACP leaders appear to be slow learners.
There could be two main reasons for this, both highly suspect. One, with an election coming up, they do not believe that the protection of White commercial farmers rates as a high priority among Black voters. Two, that it simply does not matter if the SA agricultural industry collapses and disappears because they could buy food more cheaply elsewhere. Both attitudes would be in line with the ANC’s myopic approach to other matters of critical national importance.
The position, indeed, is worse. Not only has the ANC regime demonstrated little political will in preventing these homicidal farm attacks. With the extraordinary solicitude the ANC demonstrates towards the criminal fraternity, it seems it is perfectly happy to allow criminals to dictate the future of this country.
Nightmare Without End
KwaZulu/Natal Agricultural Union president Graham McIntosh summed it up when he said, 16.3.98, that ". . . the government seems incapable of recognising that criminals commit crime, and it is time that the criminals were punished and lived in fear. Instead, law-abiding citizens live in fear." The farm murders, he pointed out, gave "high relevance to the statistics of 65 murders a day in South Africa."
The National Maize Producers Organisation (Nampo) has criticised Messrs Mandela and Mbeki for what it sees as their unwillingness "to publicly address the serious matter of the deliberate extermination of White farmers." Nampo vice-chairman Bully Botma says that "no other country is enduring the anarchy now existing here."
Government attempts to get to the bottom of the matter, to find out why the attacks are being carried out, have been totally unsatisfactory. From Mandela down the ANC reflects a demonstrable ambivalence to the farm killings. At the ANC conference in Mafikeng in December, Mandela poo-poohed the outrage over farm killings as a "tremendous barrage of propaganda." Concern over the farm killings was, he said, the result of a "racist propaganda campaign."
Mandela constantly avers, and uses National Intelligence Agency reports to substantiate this, that the farm murders are the sole work of "common criminals" and there is "no political agenda behind the attacks." Freedom Front leader General Constand Viljoen, himself a cattle farmer in the eastern Mpumalanga province, says he finds the NIA reports "baffling . . . this conclusion is beyond my comprehension."
Do these ANC spokesmen believe their own mythology? I just don’t know. An earlier police report completed last December was never released to the public, apparently because Mandela and "members of the intelligence community" - read the NIA - were unhappy with it. It is understood that the suppressed report argued that criminal motives for the attacks are fuelled by "a number of other motives," among them the land issue, the role of "struggle ideology" and the publicly expressed attitude of prominent politicians.
Certainly, White commercial farmers need not look to agricultural Minister Derek Hanekom for either sympathy or support. A man who seemingly exists in a Marxist time warp, Hanekom appears intentionally to have poisoned relations both with the White farmers, and between farmers and their workers. Many farmers believe his ideologically motivated hostility to be inspired by a determination to get them off the land. Much of the legislation he has promoted ensures the radical politicisation of agriculture.
It has become virtually impossible for farmers to evict unwanted occupiers off their land. The legal process now laid down involves enormous cost and time, as much as two years if everything goes smoothly, which is seldom the case.
While Hanekom, too, sticks faithfully to the view that the farm slayings are a-political, he recently had another go at the White farmers (Citizen, 12.8.98) blaming the murders on income disparity and "poor relationships" between farmers and labour. While this of course could be true in some cases, it was apparently not cited as a major factor in the suppressed report. The acknowledged facts are these:
The contention of most farmers, as well as the SAAU, is that there is a pattern behind the wave of attacks on farmers. At the rate of 500 a year, this alone would suggest an orchestrated campaign.
Farm killings differ from most violent crime in SA because almost all farm attacks appear to be carefully planned and carried out with almost military precision. Farm routines are studied and the attacks staged when the family is most vulnerable.
Many involve brutality of incredible ferocity, psychological terror, kidnapping, rape and attacks on children.
The statistical profile shows the attackers as usually young men, often operating in gangs of six, and with a preparedness to kill. Main demands are for guns and cash. Quite often, however, nothing is taken.
Many farmers live miles from their neighbours and are desperately vulnerable. In such cases the killers, knowing they are unlikely to be impeded in their grisly work, come after dark and do not leave till early morning.
Farmers are attacked more frequently than the rest of the population. They are four times more likely to be murdered. Moreover, the incidence of murder generally has declined, while farm murders have escalated.
From figures provided, it is evident that attacks do represent an abnormal trend. Firearms were stolen in 27% of reported cases; vehicles in 24%.
In numbers of cases there is irrefutable evidence that the attacks were planned and carried out by paid killers from Johannesburg.
Reminiscent of the strategy used by the Mau Mau in Kenya in the 1960s, are the unbelievably cruel attacks on farm animals. Not only do they slash the Achilles tendons, crippling the animal so badly that they have to be destroyed, but huge chunks of flesh are hacked from the living animal.
Government spokesmen claim that 95% to 100% of farm killers have been caught. Very few believe that figure.
One of the NIA reports drafted for the Mandela government provides a different slant to that usually made public: "In almost every case, the degree of violence inflicted upon the victims . . . was completely excessive and totally out of proportion with the objectives . . . in several instances, victims were killed in circumstances where the assailants had accomplished their purpose and it was totally unnecessary to kill. The torture and rape of victims suggests that the attackers do not merely intend to kill the victims, but to inflict pain, humiliation and suffering."
Summing up: The most serious problem facing the country gets the least official attention. Nor can there be any doubt that the Mandela government is not playing open cards on this crisis situation. Which brings us to a question of our own:
The story, apocryphal or not, goes that Julius Nyerere, visiting China, asked Mao Tse-tung how best he could set about imposing communism on Tanzania. Mao replied: "You must destroy the most conservative strata of society: the farmers."
Is that what is happening in SA today? Is it logical to suppose, as Mandela & Co insist, that such large-scale massacre of specific targets, reflecting a sustained pattern of demonic cruelty, is really just the work of a few loose cannon, low-grade thugs and some disgruntled farm workers?
Or are we seeing something very different, charting a unique course to communist hegemony? Is what we are seeing a coordinated, creeping land occupation, an Africanised quasi-nationalisation, the ultimate objective a command economy under centralised control, as always envisaged by the SACP?
As this illustration from the Afrikaans agricultural journal, Landbouweekblad, indicates, the number of SA white farmers killed since May 1994 till now is fully equal to overall casualties to be expected in any low-level civil war. The cartoon reflects 560 tombstones, a figure since overtaken.
APN believes the only effective way to focus global attention on the astounding, near-genocidal numbers of SA farmers being slaughtered is to personalise and internationalise this monstrous scandal. What we recommend is regular publication of lists of the murdered - and the manner of their murder - in half-page ads in the quality UK/US media. While platitudes and promises about their "war on crime" flow thick and fast from Mandela & Co . . . a veritable tour de force of equivocation, now about as believable as a Mother Goose fairytale . . . what the platteland is presently experiencing is a very real terrorist war, a chilling echo of Peter Mokaba’s "Kill the Farmer, Kill the Boer."
Nor was Mokaba alone with his vicious incendiary chant. A decade ago certain SA priests were also exhorting death and destruction for our entire White farming community: a noble Christian message indeed. That vengeful attitude (with Afrikaans farmers the No 1 target) was also deliberately inculcated in the minds of the so-called "liberation forces" by many of their UK/US sponsors, ecclesiastical armchair terrorists again high among them. In a sense, it was a conclusion to the Boer War.
Nevertheless, what we have seen since the 1994 all-race election has been a long series of appalling atrocities, plunging the agricultural community into an abyss of fear, insecurity and growing rage about the Mandela regime’s startling failure to protect them. As far as we could ascertain, no fully annotated list of those murdered on the farms since 1994 as yet exists. Accordingly APN, working on press cuttings and reports from the SA Agricultural Union, has collated its own list of farm murders since January 1 this year. Our list, it must be emphasised, is far from complete. Farm murders are now so common that many don’t even rate a media mention.
But, incomplete as it is, this tally will serve to demonstrate the reign of terror SA farmers face today. Even a cursory examination reflects the high similarity in the methods used in the more brutal killings.
NIGHTMARE WITHOUT END
Jan 16, 98 - Daantjie van Vuuren, 42, shot dead on his farm at Wilgerspoort, near Balfour, Mpumalanga, when the family came under surprise attack by four armed Black men. Mrs Johanna Pieterse, 77, and her daughter, Tinnie van Zyl, 32, were severely beaten and tied up with telephone wire. The robbers seized firearms from a gun safe. A search for the attackers was launched by two policemen and a farmer. In a shoot out, three of the attackers were killed, as was a police officer, Det. Sgt. Lehlohonoto Zondo of the Balfour Detective Unit. Zondo is survived by two sons, Thabo, 8, and Lechaba, 3. The fourth attacker was arrested when he emerged from his hiding place in a dam and tried to sneak past the homes of the farm workers. Police confiscated a 9 mm pistol.
Feb 14,.98 - Mr Piet de Beer, 63, badly wounded in the face and chest and his wife, Maxie, 57, killed when three Black gunmen attacked the couple’s Doringfontein farm at Ottosdal in Natal. At no stage did the killers enter the house, instead bringing it under a hail of gunfire which shattered windows and pierced doors. Mrs de Beer was shot as she tried to call police after her husband was wounded while watching TV. Mr de Beer said he only realised Maxie was dead in the passage of their home when, blinded by blood pouring into his eyes, he stumbled to the bedroom to fetch his shotgun. Maxie had been shot in the chest. Police believe that the attackers had hoped to eliminate the couple and then gain access to the house, in the belief that Mr de Beer kept money from his farm store there.
Feb 16, 98 - Mr Gert Grobler, 42, and his fiancé’s daughter, Engela Smit, 15, hacked to death with an axe when attacked by two Black youths on Plot 270, Ruvel Road, De Deur, Vaal Triangle. Firearms and jewellery taken from the house. Mr Jacon Tsotsi said he was preparing to feed Mr Grobler’s chickens when incessant barking by dogs at the servants quarters drew his attention. "I went over and slowly pushed the door open. The sight in front of me was shocking. Mr Grobler was lying sprawled on the floor, with blood on his face and on the floor." He went to a neighbour, Mr Jan Basson, to call the police. While they waited, Mr Basson went to check on the main house. He saw a shotgun lying in the passage. Jumping over it, he went to Engela’s room. Blood was spattered all over the walls and floor. He crossed to the bed, pulled off the covers and saw Engela’s battered body.
These murders again raised questions of whether racial or political motives were behind the attacks. Agricultural Minister Derek Hanekom declared, 20.2.96, that the "overwhelming motive is pure criminality."
General Viljoen said further investigation on this score was needed. "I cannot understand that the motive for the farm murders is of a criminal nature. Criminality, if that is the motive, can only point to anarchy. People who commit murder just because they have criminal feelings are very sick. How will the President end this anarchy?"
Late February, 1998 - Farm labourer, Elias Nkabinda, 50, hanged and his employer, Gert Johannes Greyling, 70, seriously wounded in attack on farm in Bethal, Mpumalanga. The two victims discovered when a neighbour, J D J van Vuuren, noticed Mr Greyling’s cattle still in the veld at 6.30 p.m., long after they were normally herded into a kraal for the night. Suspecting something was wrong, he went to the farmhouse. Peeping through a window, he saw Mr Greyling lying in a pool of blood, his hands and legs tied behind him with wire. Nkabinda’s body was found hanging from the rafters of his cottage. After Mr Greyling was rushed to hospital police reported: "Mr van Vuuren went to Nkabinda’s house with the intention of asking if he’d seen anything but found the labourer also tied up with wire and hanging from the ceiling rafters. Mr Nkabinda’s severe injuries suggested he had put up a fierce resistance. He may have been hanged for trying to fight his attackers off." Police at that stage could not give a precise time for the attack, because Mr Greyling was still unconscious in ICU.
Mar 1, 98 - Mr Johan Bruell, 63, and his wife, 56, from Randfontein found strangled in their granny flat on a plot in Rikasrus, Randfontein. The house had been ransacked, "with items strewn all over the place."
Mr Chris du Toit of the SAAU says that "despite considerable successes by the police, criminals seem to have no fear of the judicial system, being convinced that they would not be arrested or sentenced." General Viljoen says farmers and their workers are all being targeted - "they should work together for their collective safety."
Mar 5, 98 - Mr Christo Otto Fischer, 65, of the farm Spitskop near Kranskop, KZN, shot three times in the head when he was attacked by three Blacks about 5 p.m. Two men assaulted him as he got out of his bakkie to open a gate at the plantation on his farm. The attackers threw him into the bakkie before driving into the plantation where he was assaulted and shot with his own .32 revolver. His body and bakkie were found late that night. A labourer was later arrested.
Mar 7, 98 - Body of Mr P Rimbo of the farm Nooitgedach, Middelburg, found in his residence, with deep scratch marks. No further details given.
Mar 11, 98 - Theodore Stanley Taitz, 61, shot dead at point blank range within earshot of a police patrol while selling mealies on his farm at New Modder on the East Rand. His attackers approached him at 8 a.m., pretending to be customers, when one produced a gun and shot him. On hearing shots a police Dog Unit patrol on routine crime prevention duty raced to the scene where eyewitnesses pointed out three men jumping into a minibus taxi. One of the murderers shot dead by police after stabbing an officer while trying to escape.
Transvaal Agricultural Union Deputy Chief Manager Jan Human reiterates the organisation’s belief that attacks on farms were politically motivated. "The government has promised people land and welfare, have not delivered and now people are taking (what they want)." He added: "As long as the government makes promises it cannot fulfil, the murders will go on."
Mar 13, 98 - Farmer Burt Weber, 44, of Marble Hall seriously wounded and "cruelly tortured" when his farm came under attack by five armed Black robbers in the early hours of the morning. Mr Weber, who was wounded under his right ear, in the right shoulder, while a bullet that hit him in the chest penetrated a lung, died later in hospital. His wife, Pieta, was assaulted and kicked, and his 12-year old son was pistol whipped about the head. The robbers escaped with R60 000 worth of goods, including two pistols and jewellery. They fled in the family’s white Toyota Corolla.
Mar 13, 98 - Mr Wilfred Murley, 47, of Edwards Farm, Peacevale in the Inchanga area, KZN, died of a gunshot wound in the head after his home was attacked by three armed Black men.
Mar 16, 98 - Dave Ronaldson, 68, was shot dead and his wife, Faye, 65, was pistol whipped when three robbers attacked their farm, Sunrise Seedlings, about 10 km from Pietermaritzburg, KZN.
KZN Agriculture MEC Narend Singh says "attacks on farmers cannot be allowed to continue." He appealed to citizens of the province "to demand a return to civilised standards."
Mar 16, 98 - Sheila, 58, wife of Peter Marais of the farm Newlands, outside Warmbaths in the Northern Province, murdered for her handbag on a deserted dust road. Post mortem showed she had been shot through the chest. Mr Marais found her slumped on the wheel of her car. He at first thought she had suffered a heart attack, but then saw a bullet had passed through her upper right arm into her chest.
Transvaal Agricultural Union president Gert Ehlers says the farm murders "cannot be allowed to continue unchecked . . . (it will) now become increasingly difficult to restrain farmers from taking the law into their own hands."
Mar 17, 98 - Hendrik Rautenbach, 66, critically wounded after Black robbers shot him in the head and killed his wife, Anna Marie, 63, on their Uitylught smallholding near Vereeniging at lunchtime. Police said it appeared that Mr Rautenbach and his wife were overpowered about 1.30 p.m. She was tied up in her bedroom and shot. The robbers, having stolen two firearms, fled in the family vehicle, a Volkswagen Golf.
Mar 20, 98 - Frans Pieter Roussouw, 63, stabbed to death, and his wife, Tokkie, 64, assaulted by two Black youths armed with knives while watching TV at their farmhouse at Modderfontein. The front door was open because it was hot and they were expecting guests. The youths, apparently aged between 16 and 20, walked through the door and told Mr Roussouw they wanted weapons and money. As he got up to open the safe in the bedroom, one of the youths lunged forward and stabbed Mr Roussouw in the heart and stomach. The police commented: "The irony is he wanted to cooperate - and they still stabbed him." The two killers tied Mrs Roussouw to a chair with copper wire. They took a double gauge shotgun, a .22 rifle and a 9mm pistol.
General Viljoen accused the government of not being serious about solving the farm murders. He said the government should appoint a commission of investigation, aided by independent criminologists. "Such an investigation may give wider information as to why criminality in SA is suddenly the order of the day."
Mar 25, 98 - Mantlonipho Ncinane of the farm Sulenkama, Qumbu, overpowered by three suspects at his house and shot dead.
Mar 28, 98 - Mazumbe Madwantsi of the farm Gungqwana, Tsolo, attacked by two unknown Black assailants and killed.
Apr 3, 98 - Mr Muzzufar Kahn, 27, of the farm Blinkwater, Camperdown, KZN, was returning from Pietermaritzburg when he was overpowered at the farm gates by six Black men and shot in the head. His vehicle and money stolen.
Apr 4, 98 - Mr Hendrik Strauss of the farm Palmietfontein near Bloemhof shot dead while asleep in his bedroom. His wife heard two shots, went to investigate and found her husband dead. Suspects unknown, motive unknown.
Apr 6, 98 - The SAAU warns that the safety situation on farms and smallholdings was deteriorating dramatically. This came after a total of 86 farm attacks nationwide were reported in March. "In the latest spate of attacks which once again included White and Black farmers, women and children were not spared. It would seem that the attackers are out to torture people in an attempt to spread fear among the agricultural community."
Apr 14, 98 - Mr Gieljam Otto, 81, and his wife, Isabella, attacked by two unknown Black men on their Weltevreden farm at Roossenekal. Mr Otto was later found in a storeroom, with his hands tightly bound and choked to death. His assailants had crammed his mouth full of fertiliser then gagged him with a cloth wrapped over his nose and mouth. He was also stabbed. Mrs Otto was tied up with wire and locked in the bathroom but managed to release herself and climbed through a window to raise the alarm. The killers must have had advance information because they demanded a shotgun which was locked in the gunsafe and money. Police found the shotgun and a .22 rifle in Mr Otto’s car, which the killers had obviously wished to use in their getaway, but were unable to start.
Apr 4,.98 - Mr George Theron, an invalid, and his wife Susan attacked by unknown Black assailants on their Smallholdings Plot 7, Vanderbijlpark. Mr Theron died after being shot in the neck, chest, jaw and shoulder. Mrs Theron uninjured. Before running away, the killers took Mr Theron’s Vektor 9 mm pistol.
Apr 18, 98 - Potgietersrus farmer and retired police brigadier, Karel Kruger, confronted by six Black men at his farm gate and shot at while he was driving away from his plot in the Jaagbaan smallholding at 10 a.m. He died at the scene. The killers reportedly escaped in a green car and a yellow BMW. His VW-Kombi was stolen.
Apr 18, 98 - Dr Claude Drummond, 70, killed after four men, one pretending to be sick, approached him on his farm near Louis Trichardt. When Dr Drummond took them to his farm surgery the men produced firearms and demanded R7 000. When he said he didn’t have R7 000, he was shot three times in the chest. Jewellery, a firearm and R200 cash stolen.
The province’s MEC for Safety & Security, Seth Nthai, said attacks on farmers had increased. "Total war" would be declared on crime.
Apr 23, 98 - Mr Johannes du Plessis, 53, of Smallholding Plot 7, Drakeville, Vanderbijlpark, attacked on his farm and shot dead. House plundered and three firearms missing.
Apr 30, 98 - Mr John Hamilton, 58, and his wife, Ronnie, 59, attacked on their smallholding about 3 km outside Port St Johns and brutalised for more than two hours in a frenzied attack by two Black men armed with knives and pangas. The two were severely tortured and beaten while their home was ransacked. Mr Hamilton was slashed and hacked to death. One of Mrs Hamilton’s arms was nearly severed by a panga blow. A .22 gun and clothing stolen. A Nelspruit man visiting the area, Mr Mike Kromhout, said: "I’ve never seen anything like it. The house looked as though it had been sprayed in blood. It was like a scene from a horror movie."
May 13, 98 - Mr Norman Alexander McCardle, 76, murdered on his smallholding in Bredell, Kempton Park. Mr McCardle was shot in the upper leg and died at the scene. A neighbour, hearing the shots, fired at the killers, who were carrying a hi-fi and a TV set.
May 13, 98 - Mr Daniel Marais murdered on his farm Maridale, Koffiefontein, by one of his workers. Mr Marais had paid the bail granted the worker, earlier arrested for a previous murder: and was killed by the same worker the next day.
SAAU’s Chris du Toit commented: "The government’s integrity, political will and ability to counter the farm attacks effectively, and to introduce effective sentences which will deter criminals, are being seriously questioned. Emotions are reaching boiling point in the farming community and it is becoming increasingly difficult to suppress these feelings."
May 14, 98 - Bodies of Hannes Marais, 88, and his wife, Anna, 85, found on their farm Baviaanskrans outside Ladysmith in the Cape Karoo. Both had been shot at close range. The bodies were found lying in front of an open safe in a bedroom.
May 15, 98 - Don Delafield, 65, and his wife, Verina, bludgeoned to death in their Leeuwpoort farmhouse outside Rustenburg. The bodies discovered at 9 a.m. Sunday by Mr Boet Klappers, Verina’s father, who lived in a cottage about 40 m from the main house. He investigated when he could not raise the Delafields either by phone or on the intercom. Mr Delafield was at home watching rugby on TV when the killers arrived. Police said it appeared he knew the people and let them into the house as there was no sign of forced entry. At the time of his murder Mr Delafield was recovering from a hip replacement operation and was using a wheelchair. He bled to death after being stabbed in an artery below the ear.
The killers dragged him into a passage while they waited for Verina, who had gone to buy a newspaper. She was ambushed when she returned home about 2.30 p.m. It appeared the killers had waited for her for sometime, as an empty whisky bottle was left on the floor and cigarettes had been stubbed out on the lounge carpet. Verina died of excessive blood loss after suffering massive blows to the head with a poker. The attackers dragged the dying woman into a bedroom. Her underwear was missing and evidence indicated she had been raped. Her hands and feet were tied. The murderers had put the couple’s vicious bull terrier out of action by feeding him boerewors heavily laced with insecticide. Apart from a small pistol, nothing was stolen. Police offered a R30 000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers.
Chris du Toit accused politicians of initiating attacks on farmers by what he termed "hate" or "revenge" speech . . . "the politicians sought excuses for the attackers and depicted farmers as the enemy."
May 24, 98 - Dennis Peterson, 72, of Frere Farm near Estcourt, KZN, found dead outside his house in the early morning by a cattle herder. Hands tied tightly behind his back and massive contusions to the head. Firearms and a TV missing.
May 26, 98 - James, no other name given, an employee at Sunrise Farm, Barberton, found dead in the farmhouse. Throat slit and deep wounds in the back.
May 26, 98 - While working on his land Mr Barkhuizen, of Fern Aber Farm in Muden, KZN, noticed strangers approaching the residence. While on his way to investigate, he heard shots. He found his wife, Yvonne, dead, with gunshots in her right side. Killers and motive unknown.
May 27, 98 - Hendrik Coetzee, 49, attacked on his remote Valleifontein farm, Lichtenburg, about 9 p.m. after going outside to say goodnight to a neighbour who had been helping him repair a tractor. Before he could get back into the house, his wife Hanna heard shots and her husband shouting. Coetzee’s son, Kobus, 22, ran outside and was shot twice in the hips.
While his father was struggling with two attackers outside, he heard his wife, Johann, scream in the kitchen.
Although badly wounded, he left the two men outside and tackled the man who was struggling with his wife. The attacker shouted for help and the other two came running into the kitchen. Coetzee, who had been a boxer in his youth, grabbed the three and, with a superhuman effort, managed to shove them out of the door, then collapsed and died. He had been shot at least eight times in the chest, neck and elsewhere. The killers also shot dead the family’s pet cat. Police offered a R300 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and convictions of the killers. The Coetzee family were described as "very kind people" by the North West MEC for Agriculture, the Rev Johannes Tselopi.
Mr Tselopi said that farm attacks appeared to be "highly organised and orchestrated," with the purpose of destabilising rural areas and creating a sense of insecurity in order to drive farmers - who were "very important to the economic development of the North West" - away from their farms. Everything possible, he said, should be done to bring attacks on the farms to an end.
May 29, 98 - Mrs Susanna Bodenstein, returning to the farm Saamkop Boerdery, Letsitele, at 4.40 p.m. observed a barricade thrown across the road. She tried to make a U turn but was attacked and shot by two Black men. Killers stole her maroon BMW, cash and Baretta pistol.
May 29, 98 - Albert Mtembo and his wife attacked in their home on the Plaston farm, Witrivier by two unknown Black men. Mr Mtembo shot dead. Suspects fled, having taken a small amount of cash.
June 26, 98 - Mrs Doreen Whelehan, 75, murdered at her Dexter cattle stud farm, Muldersdrif. Mrs Whelehan’s body was found on the floor of her lounge, her hands tied behind her back. Police said a jersey had been thrown over her head and it appeared she had been hit with an unidentified object. House ransacked and a number of electrical appliances taken. Mrs Whelehan had lived alone since the death of her husband, a prominent cattle breeder. The body was found by her domestic worker, Mrs Aletta Senewale, when she arrived for work in the early morning.
Mr Hugo Vorster, chairman, Muldersdrif Ratepayers Association, described the community reaction as one "of absolute shock and horror . . " The attacks on farmers, he said, "are now out of control."
July 4, 1998 - Mrs Martha Oosthuizan, of the farm Zandfontein, Ladismith in the Cape Karoo, found by a farm worker in her kitchen with a gaping wound which was bleeding copiously. The farmworker called the police from a neighbouring farm. On arrival, they found the victim dead. A hand axe covered with blood found on the scene. The suspect, a teenager, his clothes soaked in blood, was apprehended soon after, hiding near the farmstead. He was released on bail, Sept 11, 98.
Mr Frik Bosman, executive general manager of Agriculture Western Cape, previously the Cape Agricultural Union, said the farming community was outraged over the suspect’s early release, especially considering the gruesome nature of the killing. He added: "The suspect was released on bail with normal conditions, but without any of the additional controls one would have expected for a murder as horrific as this." Ironically, much stronger bail conditions were in fact imposed on the suspect when he was re-arrested only hours after his release, this time for trespassing.
July 5, 98 - Johannes Hendrik Francois Robertze, 61, his wife, Janet, 50, and his brother-in-law, Willem Brits, 60, all shot dead on their farm Klipplaatdrief, Mpumalanga. A .303 rifle and bullets belonging to Mr Robertze were found in a Mercedes-Benz found abandoned about 12 km from the murder scene. The husband and wife were found dead in the farm kitchen. Mr Brits was found in the outside room, his hands tied behind his back. Suspects: two unknown Black men.
July 5, 98 - Mr Abraham Fourie, of the farm Coetzeerrust, Welkom, last seen alive at midday repairing a boundary fence. At 5.30 p.m. a farmworker found Mr Fourie dead in a labourer’s cottage. The victim had a wire round his neck and had various chop wounds on the body.
July 19, 98 - Mr Rautenbach, of the farm West Lisley, Underberg, overpowered by an unknown Black man who had gained entry into his home through a window. Victim hit over the head with a heavy blunt object and killed. Three firearms missing.
July 24, 98 - Mr Philipus Greeff, 76, and his wife, Maretha, 72, both shot in the head on their farm Middlewater, in Hanover, Western Cape. The two suspects had been released early in accordance with Nelson Mandela’s "birthday gift" amnesty to 9 000 prisoners. Killers fled in the Greeff’s bakkie, which they overturned about 9 km from the farm.
July 29, .98 - Mrs Elizabeth Radloff murdered on the family farm at Ficksburg when her husband, David, was called away to investigate a veld fire. On his return he found his wife’s body about five metres from their home. She had been stabbed in the neck and stomach. A cross had been cut into her chest. Police arrested a 35-year old farm worker about 2 km from the home. He had earlier been in a dispute with Mr Radloff, who had tried to break up a quarrel between the man and his girl friend.
July 30, 98 - Attackers targeted the farm Geluksrus in Mooi River, KZN, owned by Christoffel Buys, a member of a well-known Natal pioneering family, and his wife, Dinah, while they were entertaining dinner guests, Mr and Mrs Piet Erasmus, about 9 p.m. As they were sitting at the table a dining room window was shattered by gun fire. A Black man with a balaclava over his face appeared and fired several shots at Mrs Buys and Mr Erasmus. Mr Erasmus, 46, shot in the chest, died instantly. Mrs Buys was shot in the head and died in an ambulance en route to hospital. The attacker forced Mrs Erasmus outside at gunpoint and stole her jewellery and car keys. Mr Buys, paralysed in a previous attack in 1996, fired shots at the attackers after which they set his car alight and fled.
July 31, .98 - The body of Mr Thys van Huyssteen, 30, of the farm Welkom in Viljoenskroon in the Bloemfontein area, found by workers in his home. He had been shot in the head and neck. Three Black men arrested.
Aug 1, 98 - Mrs Johanna van Wyk, 40, of the farm Bitterspoort in the Carnarvon area, Northern Cape, killed after being struck on the head with a heavy iron pot.
Aug 4, 98 - After a massive search, the bloodied body of Mr Andre Breytenbach, 60, chairman of the local farmers union, discovered about 4 km from his homestead. He went missing from his Ruigtevlei farm near Louis Trichardt after taking his workers home to Botlokwa township. The killers apparently ambushed Mr Breytenbach when he climbed out of his vehicle to open his farm gate on his return. He was shot in the stomach before his body was dumped in the veld. His attackers fled in his white Isuzu bakkie, after placing the vehicle’s registration plates at his head and feet. The bakkie was found about 20 km from the murder scene, almost totally burnt out, the police believed to destroy any clues. His rifle, 9 mm pistol and wrist watch were missing. Police offered a R50 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers.
Aug 9, - One of the most gruesome atrocities in SA criminal history occurred on the farm Boschrug near George in the Western Cape, after a hostage drama in which four people were butchered and set alight, one while still alive, and three others injured. What started off as a peaceful Sunday morning on Apple Grove Farm turned into a bloodbath when an armed Coloured man, believed to have been a former employee at Apple Grove, arrived at the farmhouse, surprising the middle-aged owners, Tommy and Ria Heathfield. They were attacked and taken hostage.
Around 9.30 a.m. Isabel Lamprecht, her son Krisjan and friends Marchant Gerber and Andrew Reid arrived on the farm to accompany the Heathfields to church. The six were missed at the service and the minister, Pastor Solomon Raats of the Pentecostal Protestant Church, and Reid’s father, Bobby, drove out to Apple Grove. The attacker was waiting for them. He leapt out of a side door, shouting: "Here are two more White people to shoot." He forced Reid into the farmhouse. Raats was ordered to return to town and fetch R3 000 in cash by 2 p.m. Instead, he alerted the police, who swung into action. A large police contingent was converging on the farm when the suspect spotted them.
Using Isabel Lamprecht as a shield, he tried to make a break for it in the Heathfield’s Volkswagen, with the police in hot pursuit. Mrs Lamprecht managed to jump out of the vehicle which suspect rolled before fleeing into the mountains.
It was when the police entered the farmhouse that the full horror of the situation became apparent. Dead and dying were strewn all over the house. Ria Heathfield, Gerber and Andrew Reid were dead, their bodies torched. Bobby Reid had suffered serious head wounds and been set alight, and died later in hospital. Ria Heathfield had been stripped naked and been raped by the killer. Members of the ambulance service had to use fire extinguishers to quench the flames around the bodies. Suspect later arrested at a road block.
Aug 25, 98 - Mr Roelof Vermeulen of Plot 4, Randfontein, and his domestic servant attacked in the farmhouse by two armed Black men. Mr Vermeulen murdered, suspects try unsuccessfully to escape in his bakkie. They got away with a safe and R5 000 in cash.
Aug 27, 98 - The body of Johannes Henry van Heerden, 67, found dead in his bed on the Nooitgedacht farm at Kromdraai, near Witbank, with his hands and legs bound with telephone cord at about 7 a.m. He had been savagely beaten on the back of the head and socks had been stuffed in his mouth. His face was covered with a jersey. A widower, Mr van Heerden had apparently tried to alert his son, who lives on a neighbouring farm, using a two-way radio. The son went to his father’s house, where he found the body. Mr van Heerden’s bakkie was missing. Police said there was no sign of forced entry and his firearm was left lying on top of his wardrobe. Mr van Heerden had survived three previous farm attacks. Before that, he was assaulted in two attempted robberies.
Aug 27, 98 - Frederick Jabocus "Bokkie" Human, 46, of the farm Welgemoet in the Paterson area, Eastern Cape, killed by attackers posing as cattle buyers. They are thought to have tricked Mr Human into locking his dogs away minutes before the daytime attack. A domestic worker found his body still in the lounge chair after hearing the shots. Police said it appeared the attackers fled without taking anything when another farmer arrived almost immediately after the shooting. Mr Human was not married and lived alone. Bushmen and tracker dogs picked up the trail of the killers who were arrested in the Zuurberg Mountains.
Aug 28, 98 - Mr Marius Louis du Preez, 36, who lived on a farm near Lothair, died after being shot in the back. Mr du Preez made a living by buying milk from farmers and reselling it. Police say that on the day of his murder he was selling milk in the village of Dundonald when three Black youths approached him from behind. Two witnesses saw one of the three fire shots at Mr du Preez, hitting him in the spine. They made off with his moonbag, which probably contained some cash and his firearm. He died instantly. While the police believed the motive for the attack was robbery, they were puzzled why the attackers did not take Mr du Preez’s bakkie. "The only thing we can think of is that they did not drive."
A telling example of the farmers demand for a return of the death penalty.
Aug 29, 98 - The entire Eastern Cape farming community was enraged at the murder of Mr George Wylie, 76, of the farm Upper Glenwyn, Grahamstown, while lying seriously ill in bed. A very respected member of the community, Mr Wylie was the oldest producer and distributor of dairy products in SA. About 3 p.m. on the day of the attack his son, Peter, who lives with his wife Gillian in a separate house on the farm, heard a muffled bang from his parent’s home. As he approached a small Black man, "probably in his early twenties," came out, waving a gun and shouting "Money! Money!"
He forced Peter into his own home and told him to open the gun safe. He was told to lie on the floor. A second assailant then entered. Peter was told to find money for the second robber. He found R220. While handing this to the man, he managed to press the panic button. The first robber, standing one metre away, immediately fired a shot from a 9 mm pistol. "The bullet whizzed past my ear."
The robbers fled in George Wylie’s Volkswagen Fox, later found abandoned near Joza. Together with a security guard who had just arrived, Peter went to see his father. They found him on his bloodsoaked bed, shot just below the ribs but still alive. The guard administered first aid but Mr Wylie died soon afterward. He and his wife had lived on the farm for 50 years. Suspects took a R4 military assault rifle, a 7.65 mm pistol and a .22 revolver.
Aug 30, 98 - A retired Spoornet official, Mr Andre Stander, 65, found murdered on his farmstead in Dyesseldorpontset, Oudtshoorn, Southern Cape, after being attacked by two intruders. He was stabbed in the left side of his body and battered round the face and head with a heavy object. When a neighbour, Neels Slabbert, arrived the killers fled. Mrs Annie Stander, 65, was in church at the time her husband was slain.
Sept 4, 98 - John Jackson, 41, and his family attacked by five Black men soon after arriving at their Pongola farm, northern KwaZulu/Natal. The men leapt on Johnson. He was shot and stabbed to death while his wife sustained minor injuries. Their three children escaped physically unhurt. The suspects fled with Jackson’s .38 revolver.
Sept 5, 98 - Cecil Frauenstein, 58, a farmer in the Kidd’s Beach area of the Eastern Cape, hacked to death outside his home. Police said Mr Frauenstein went out in the early morning to milk his cows. An elderly farmworker who witnessed the attack said five Black men were involved, three of them armed with knives, one with a panga, the other with a firearm. "They stabbed and hacked and slashed the farmer repeatedly, after which they ran away."
Commenting on the continued killings, Safety & Security Minister Mr Sydney Mufamadi said they had "potentially divisive implications." Although unfounded, "the persisting suspicion that there might be another motivation other than common criminality provides fertile ground for racial tension, and even violence."
Sept 7, 98 - Mr L B Thorne, a company director living in the picturesque Plaston area outside Witrivier, brutally murdered on his smallholding. According to Inspector Okkie Brits, the investigating officer, Mr Theron, a part-time farmer and director of VGS Engineering, the attackers gained entrance by forcing the kitchen burglar proofing. They overpowered Thorne in the lounge where he had probably fallen asleep in front of the TV. A lattice-work gate in the passage which Throne usually locked when he went to bed, stood open. He was savagely beaten and chopped with various objects, then finally strangled with a belt. The injuries were so extensive that police could not immediately determine whether he had also been shot.
According to Brits, Thorne was extremely security conscious and had installed electrified, strengthened burglar proofing over a security gate in the passage between the bedrooms; a front door which could be jammed with a crossbar on the inside, as well as owning six large dogs and a number of firearms. The attackers fled in Thorne’s bakkie with an unknown number of weapons. The bakkie was found abandoned on Saturday in the Jerusalem Trust area, about 15 km from the property.
Infuriated farmers in the Eastern Cape demonstrated outside the Alexandra Magistrates Court when the four accused in the "Bokkie" Human murder case appeared for their first hearing. Here farmers face a graphic demonstration of their demand for a return of the death penalty. - Photographs: Eastern Province Herald.
Photographs by Eastern Province Herald
Source:The Aida Parker Newsletter
http://www.matriots.com/apn/221/index.htm
From the Aida Parker Newsletter website:
The web pages on this site expose the activities of those that should not be in a position of power; the African National Congress (a terrorist organization in power only by the grace of the Rockefeller Foundation after a $5 billion gift and the sellout of South Africa by the last white president: Frederik Willem de Klerk), the machiavellian bankers like the Rothschilds, JP Morgan, the Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan, etc., the almighty leftwing propaganda machine, the ADL, the B'nai B'rith , the United Nations, the US Government, the NSA with its super Spy network and data bases... all of these with an agenda that they do not want you to know about!
The formation of a One World Government (OWO)
