‘Put Him in Jail Forever’: White South African Farm Worker Who Wept In Court Says Boss Forced Him to Feed Black Women’s Bodies to Pigs

A white South African farm owner and his two employees are now on trial after being accused of fatally shooting two Black women last year, then feeding their bodies to pigs.

Maria Makgatho, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were shot to death last August while they were looking for food on a pig farm belonging to 60-year-old Zachariah Johannes Olivier in the northern province of Limpopo.

According to the BBC, Makgatho and Ndlovu sneaked onto the farm after a dairy company dumped some potentially expired goods on the property. They were fatally shot after they were discovered.

Ndlovu’s husband accompanied both women to the farm and was also shot, but he was able to crawl away and call for help. He reported the incident to local police. Days after the killings, authorities found the women’s bodies in a pigsty.

Olivier and his two employees, 20-year-old Adrien de Wet and 50-year-old William Musora, were all charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder, three counts of defeating the ends of justice, and possession of firearms and ammunition.

Authorities believe the men fed the women’s bodies to pigs in an attempt to dispose of the evidence covertly.

De Wet testified as a prosecution witness and told the court that he was under duress when Olivier forced him to throw Makgatho’s and Ndlovu’s bodies into the pig enclosure on the farm, according to the BBC.

All De Wet’s charges could be dropped if his testimony is accepted.

However, many in the public are not buying De Wet’s defense.

“No one is forced to do such a heinous thing,” one person wrote. “Lies. Just trying to save himself,” wrote another.

“Stupids if you believe this Monsters has nothing to do with the murders. I can tell he is pure evil not innocent but Murder. Put him in Jail forever,” a person wrote.

Olivier and Musora have yet to enter a plea to their charges and remain in jail. Musora, a Zimbabwean national, was also charged with contravening sections of the illegal immigration act over his status as an “illegal immigrant,” police said.

The murders have stoked racial tensions in a country that was already reeling from two other brutal farm incidents that happened last year.

Another farmer and his assistant were arrested last August for allegedly murdering two men whom they accused of stealing sheep, then burning their bodies beyond recognition to try to hide evidence.

In another case, a 70-year-old farmer was accused of driving over a 6-year-old boy and breaking both his legs for stealing an orange.

President Donald Trump recently drew backlash for falsely suggesting an ongoing genocide against white farmers in South Africa. The country’s State Department data shows that of the nearly 20,000 murders that took place last year in the country, only 0.2 percent took place on farms, and victims were both Black and white.

‘Put Him in Jail Forever’: White South African Farm Worker Who Wept In Court Says Boss Forced Him to Feed Black Women’s Bodies to Pigs