Authorities in South Africa have charged a White farm owner and his two employees after they allegedly murdered two Black women before feeding their bodies to pigs.
Per CNN, prosecutors said the victims were fatally shot for trespassing. The August 2024 incident is said to have drawn the ire of the public and reignited issues pertaining to racism in the country.
The farm owner, 60-year-old Zachariah Olivier, is facing trial alongside his two employees; Adrian De Wet, 19, and a foreigner identified as William Musoro. A regional spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA) told the news outlet that the three suspects were arraigned before a court on Monday.
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The NPA said the suspects have been charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder, three counts of defeating the ends of justice, and possession of firearms and ammunition. Authorities also claim Musoro is an “an illegal immigrant,” and he faces an additional charge of “defeating the ends of justice and contravention of the Immigration Act.”
NPA spokesperson in Limpopo Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi said that the suspects have yet to enter a plea, and they’ll be making their next court appearance on Thursday.
In the wake of the murders, police in a statement said that the women’s decomposed bodies were ultimately located “in a pigsty on a farm in Sebayeng, outside Mankweng.”
“The investigation began when a 45-year-old South African woman went missing after visiting the farm on 17 August (2024), accompanied by a 35-year-old foreign national woman,” police added. “Both women sustained gunshot wounds.”
The two women were with a male foreign national at the time of the incident. That individual was also shot, but he managed to escape and was hospitalized, authorities said, per CNN.
The victim who survived informed reporters that he was married to one of the murdered women. He also said the other deceased victim was his neighbor, and they all went to the farm to take products that were expired and had been abandoned.
Murders of such nature have reportedly happened in South Africa over the last few years. However, farm murders linked to White and Black South Africans constitute a very tiny percentage of killings in the country. White nationalist groups allege White farmers are being subjected to genocide, though those claims largely have no basis.
