Hoeveel van die plaasboere word nie deur hul eie werkers vermmor nie.
'Age won't save young killers'
31/05/2006
Pietermaritzburg - Two judges sitting in adjacent courts sentenced four men on
Tuesday - one for the murder of a Boston woman stabbed 31 times in her
farmhouse, and three others for the robbery and murder of a Cedarville farmer.
KwaZulu-Natal Judge-President Vuka Tshabalala said killings on farms gave South Africa a bad name and hit the economy, while Judge Leona Theron said farmers were
seen as soft targets.
Boston farmer's wife, Jacqueline Chatterton, 46, was stabbed by two men who
broke into her home at night while her husband James went outside to switch off
a pump.
He was locked out while she was attacked in the house.
She was stabbed several times in the back, including 11 times in her lungs,
while running to the farmer's radio alert.
Eventually when her husband got into the house she was on the floor and gasped:
"I'm bad. I'm bad".
She was put into a car and rushed to hospital in Pietermaritzburg, but died on
the way.
On May 22, a former employee of the Chattertons, David Ndlovu, 22, pleaded
guilty to her murder and was jailed for life by acting Judge Nompumulelo
Hadebe.
Ndlovu was arrested in the Chatterton home by farmers in response to a May-day
call on the farmers' radio.
Ndlovu's accomplice, Thuthukami Miya, 22, pleaded not guilty and their trials
were separated.
On Tuesday, Miya was jailed for life by Judge Tshabalala who said that if
Ndlovu had been arrested in the Chatterton home by other citizens he would have
been killed on the spot.
Meanwhile, in the other case, Judge Theron said some of the most heinous and
brutal offences were committed by young offenders, but they would not be
allowed to hide behind their youth and plead for leniency.
Two of the three killers of Cedarville farmer Christiaan Colin Moolman, 38,
were 19 years old.
The State said the killers saw Moolman drive away from his farm on June 1 2004.
Shot him dead with his own guns
At knifepoint, they robbed his gardener, broke into the Moolman house and
waited for his return.
They stole his rifle and shotgun and, when he came back, he was fatally shot.
Judge Theron sentenced Nkosipendule Ludidi, 19, to an effective 25 years' jail
for Moolman's murder and aggravated housebreaking and illegal weapon offences.
She handed life sentences to Andile Ludidi, 26, and Bukhosigakhe Ntuli, 19.