Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
A South African pig farmer and his two workers will go on trial next week for a gruesome double murder that shocked the Limpopo farming community and left Zimbabweans in fear.
The trial is set to start on Monday, 11 August at the Mankweng Magistrate Court, where Zachariah Olivier (60), his employee Adriaan De Wet (19) and William Musoro (45) — a Zimbabwean — are facing a slew of chilling charges.
They stand accused of killing two women, believed to be Maria Makgato and Lucia Ndlovu, before dumping their bodies in a sty for pigs to feast on, at Onvervaght Farm in Sebayeng last year.
Limpopo’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson, Mashudu Dzhangi Malabi, confirmed that the case was postponed to allow the lawyers to finalise preparations.
“The trial will commence on Monday, 11 August,” she said.
The list of charges includes two counts of murder, attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, defeating the ends of justice, and immigration violations in connection with Musoro, who is reportedly in the country illegally.
Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Malasela Ledwaba said the nightmare began on 17 August last year, when a 45-year-old South African woman and her 35-year-old foreign companion visited the farm — and never came back.
The decomposed bodies of both women were later discovered dumped in a pigsty on 20 August, following an intense investigation by the Provincial Tracking Team and Murder and Robbery Unit.
Police say both women had gunshot wounds, and a 47-year-old foreign man who was with them was also shot but survived and was hospitalised.
The motive for the brutal killings remains unknown.
