2009-04-01 Jan van Wyk, 82, and Basie Venter, 65, mutilated cruelly on their farms, Vierfontein Viljoenskroon, Free State
Bloemfontein - The brutal ‘muti-related murders’ of two Free State farmers at Vierfontein were deplored by the commercial farmers body Free State Agriculture on Wednesday.
Free State Agriculture president Louw Steytler strongly condemned the cowardly and gross manner of the murders.
"I urge farmers to get involved in Free State Agriculture's rural safety plan," he said in a statement.
This follows the arrest of an unnamed, 25-year-old man on Tuesday morning on the farm of Jan van Wyk, 82, at Vierfontein.
- It was reported that the man was found sweeping the veranda and calmly making food on Tuesday morning, when he was discovered by Johan Engelbrecht and other members of Free State Agriculture's rural safety organisation. The man ran inside the homestead and threatened the security detail with gardening shears. They were able to apprehend him, however, reported Tom de Wet and Marisa Phillips of Beeld newspaper. see
Van Wyk's mutilated body was found in the dining room of the house. One of the suspected murder weapons and beads covered in blood were found buried in the fields next to a lion camp near a neighbouring farmer Basie Venter’s homestead, who was found murdered just hours earlier.
Van Wyk, a retired policeman who only alone stayed on his farm over the weekends, was allegedly lured outside where he was bashed over the head with a shovel, dragged inside the homestead while still alive -- and then mutilated. This is a clear indication that this was a 'murder to harvest body parts for ‘traditional medicine’, as this is inevitably done while the poor victims are still alive.
Johan Engelbrecht of Free State Farm Security said he was investigating the muti-murder of another neighbouring farmer, Basie Venter, 65, a few hours before when another farmer stopped him on the road and warned him that he ‘suspected trouble’ on the Van Wyk farm next door, too. Van Wyk wasn’t on his stoep as he usually did early in the morning, reading his Bible.
There seems little doubt that the same man was also involved in the murder of Basie Venter. Venter's widow Mary, 68, had witnessed the attack around 21:15 on Monday through a window in the house. Venter was attacked with an iron rod, police said.
Steytler conveyed the organisation's sympathy to the victim's families. “We regret these brutal attacks and murders on the farmers."
Steytler said the murders, which seemed muti-related, was ‘barbaric and had no place in a modern world’.
Kroonstad police spokesman Maselela Langa confirmed the murders. He said the 25-year-old man, a Lesotho citizen, appeared in the Viljoenskroon Magistrate's Court on Wednesday. He did not provide the arrested man’s name nor his motives. The matter was postponed to April 7. see
MUTI-MURDERS – A CRUEL PHENOMENON:
Muti-related murders occur very frequently in South Africa. For instance, the South African Police Service reports reported on August 20, 2008 that three men were arrested for selling traditional medicine in Bushbuckridge, Limpopo province – and were actually jailed for it: an unusual event…
Left to right: South African restaurant-owner Floyd Mokoena, son Toto and friend Justice Ndubane in the Bushbuckridge Magistrates' Court, for the muti-murder of Floyd's nephew Clarence Brown on 15 August 2008. They slaughtered Brown alive for body parts on 23 February 2008 on behest of a witchdoctor which made 'lucky potions' out of this human flesh for them, and were found guilty. The witchdoctor was not charged.
SA Police captain L Hlati reported that on 15 August 2008, three suspects were arrested by his team for a case related to a 'muti'-murder (human body-parts harvested for 'traditional medicine') and that they were charged in the Bushbuckridge Magistrates' Court. Businessman Patrick Floyd Mokoena (58), his son, Sydney Toto Mokoena (33) and his son's friend Mjojo Justice Ndubane (28).
They admitted that they had brutally murdered Floyd's nephew Clarence Brown (25) on 23 February 2008, and were jailed.
Desperately needed body parts:
Their testimony was that Floyd told his son that he desperately needed human body parts 'to make his four businesses quickly churn big bucks'.
The suspected businessman owns the Lebohang Bar Lounge, a restaurant in Tekamahala Trust, another in Oakley near Hazyview as well as a liquor-outlet in Oakley.
Body parts from a family member said the witch doctor:
His son Toto asked his friends -- Mjojo Justice Ndubane and another unidentified suspect -- to help. They went in search for Floyd's nephew Clarence Brown -- as the witchdoctor's advice was that the body parts needed to be of a family member. The victim was found drinking at the Sizanani 2 Bar Lounge in Oakley with his friends. The suspects waited at a bridge where the nephew was supposed to pass when going home - and offered him a lift.
The suspects made formal admissions to the arresting police that they 'cut his body parts while he was still alive' - while seated inside a blue Venture kombi belonging to Floyd.
They then threw the victim's lifeless body in the middle of the road in Oakley, under the false pretense that the victim had been involved in a hit-and-run accident.
The three suspects were arrested by the Organised Crime Unit between 13 and 14 August 2008 while sitting relaxed at their homes, thinking that their evil deeds had gone unnoticed, Captain Hlathi wrote in his police report. see
