Monday, September 22 2009 – Two black workers at the Wimpy snack bar in Kempton Park appeared in court today, suspects in the murder of their Afrikaner manager Lambert Theron, 20, on 30 Augus 2009. His mutilated body was found in the Wimpy establishment by his older brother Johan. ( please note the corrected date of the murder).
Remanded to 16 November 2009:
The accused workers, Lloyd Katsande and Fanie Msiza (both 25), were not asked to plead. The case was remanded to 16 November 2009. The men were ordered to remain in police custody. Police told the news media at the time of these two arrests, just hours after the murder, that they’d found R1,000 in cash, traced from the Wimpy till, as well as Theron's cellphone and other items belonging to the young manager, on the two suspects when they lifted them from their beds.
Family members and friends say that ‘the arrested men’s comments to the investigating police officers at the time, were that the murder had been 'an accident'.
A journalist who spoke to the murdered man’s 64-year-old father Johan at the court today, said his son had been badly mutilated – and mourners at his funeral were also able to view this fact at first-hand when his bruised face, beaten black and blue, was displayed at the service.
- Said the father on Monday: ‘The inside of his lips were torn because of all the many kicks and blows with a meat-hammer --and he was also cut at least 30 times with a knife. One of his fingers was cut off and was hanging just from its skin.’
No interest from the Afrikaans news media:
Police also interfered in a photographer’s attempt to photograph the two accused. Moreover, the only newspaper reporting this killing thus far was the local Kempton Express, published by Caxton newspaper. email kemptonexpress@caxton.co.za editor Ms Christa Smit, tel 011 970-3030. They have no website. We thus publish the clipping provided to us about this report below this report. It’s surprising that the mainstream Afrikaans-language news-media has shown no interest in this case whatsoever.
REVENGE ATTACK…
As was reported on Sept 10 2009 in the Kempton Express weekly -- a Caxton paper which does not have a news-website -- the young Afrikaner was just closing up shop on August 30 2009 when two black co-workers demanded that he must give them money from the till to 'borrow', according to well-informed witnesses. Mr Theron told them he couldn't - as it was the company's money, not his.
According to the closed-circuit TV video footage of the incident, police said , the black co-workers were then seen to fly into a rage, stabbing the young Afrikaner, kicking out his teeth and hacking into his head with a meat-hammer.
Mourners at his funeral described his face as having been beaten ‘completely black and blue.’
The two co-workers were lifted from their beds at 2am Monday morning after police had viewed the murder on the close-circuit camera videos, Capt Jethro Mtshali said.
The murder was discovered later that night after Theron's father Johan Sr. 64, had sent his other son Johan, 24, to go and look for Lambert when he failed to return home: in time for Johan Junior ‘s birthday celebration that day.
The brother found the mutilated corpse of his young brother in the food-shop -- and the father and brother then contacted the local police. However two of the cops who arrived to investigate, reportedly were 'very arrogant', according to witness reports, and had chased the traumatised father from the Wimpy restaurant.
Comment about this could not be obtained by us from the police, however the police did confirm that, after having viewed the horror-scenes of the young man’s murder on the closed-circuit TV video recording at the shop, the police immediately drove to the workers' homes - finding them asleep in their beds.
Source of picture of news-cutting below: coertbotha@hotmail.com
SAPS censors murder report to news media?
- The SA Police Service’s daily reports of crimes to the news media did not include this murder in their lineup – and neither have they thus reported this in their SAPS Journal online – which usually is very quick to record such ‘police successes’.
- http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=413&rws=30&stid=2&head=Police Successes&orderby=start_publish_date desc
Wimpy targetted before:
This same Wimpy also was the scene of an armed robbery on 29 May 2006. Staffers then were confronted by two black men inside the diner at about 08:00 and loudly screamed for help, spokeswoman Cynthia Kleinhans said. The pair then ran off and some of the mall's informal, unarmed car guards then gave chase. Police and metro police arrived and one man was arrested carrying a firearm and the restaurant's keys. The second man had run into the veld and was shooting at the police. He was arrested about 20 minutes later in CR Swart road. He was shot in the leg during this arrest.
Information gathered by Adriana Stuijt, a.j.stuijt@knid.nl NOTE -- We invite readers to please also send us any pictures, documents etc. they could submit to complete our records, and any public court documents they could obtain for publication during the course of the trial. a.j.stuijt@knid.nl -- We aspire to be as accurate as possible. We would also appreciate any links and clippings of any media-reports in this case.
Police also confirmed that the suspects still had R1,000 in cash with them when arrested – apparently stolen from the Wimpy till, as well as Theron's cellphone and other items belonging to the young manager. Family members and friends say that ‘the arrested men’s comments to the investigating police officers were that the murder had been 'an accident'.