Pietermaritzburg - Four men were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder of three people on a farm near Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

“The Organised Crime Unit from Pietermaritzburg arrested four men for the murder of three people on Sherwood Farm on Wednesday 21 July,” said Colonel Jay Naicker.

The men were arrested in Hlatikulu in Mooi River. A 9mm pistol and knives were found on the men during the arrest.

The four men were expected to appear in the Mooi River Magistrate’s Court on July 30 on charges of murder and robbery.

Throat cut, stabbed

Lorraine Karg, 58, was found with her throat cut last week Wednesday.

Next to her were the bodies of two farm workers, Hilda Linane, 34, and Zakhewo Mhlongo, 66. They had been stabbed.

Naicker said Karg and her husband Neville were at home when they noticed fire on their grazing land.

Following the incident at Hartswater, where six suspected farm attackers were released because the police apparently did not properly investigated the incident, TAU SA sent the following letter to the Independent Complaints Directorate, demanding an investigation into the matter:

The Regional Director
Independent Complaints Directorate
Private Bag X941
Pretoria
0001

Dear Mr Beukman,

HARTSWATER MAGISTRATES COURT : CASE AGAINST SIX FARM ATTACKERS

In Beeld of 13 July 2010 it was reported that the magistrate scrapped a case off the roll after the public prosecutor requested another postponement because the SAPS investigation was not up to standard. According to the spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority in the Northern Cape, Mr Phaladi Shuping, the six accused (Victor Mariping, John Assan, Manapule Mongale, William Salome, Ishmael Motwani and Johannes Gorewang) were released and their bail returned to them.

AfriForum today asked the Parole Board at the prison in Polokwane not to recommend that Douglas Mokone gets parole.  Mokone is currently serving a sentence of 15 years for the attempted murder of a farmer of this community.  In January 2003, Mokone stopped Mr Attie Vermaak on a farm road and shot him at close range.  Mokone then drove off with three other suspects.  During the incident, nothing was stolen, and in his evidence, Mokone merely stated that he had wanted to kill Vermaak.

AfriForum's Head of Community Safety, Nantes Kelder, stated on behalf of Mr Vermaak, his family and the workers employed by Vermaak at the time of the incident, that Mokone should not be considered for parole.  He said that all who had testified against Mokone, live in fear of their lives and that Mr Vermaak is still suffering from the physical, emotional and financial scars of the attack.  He lost much of his quality of life - he has a shortened colon, no gallbladder and almost a third of his liver had to have been removed.  He suffers constant pain which contributed to the fact that he could no longer continue farming on a full-time basis.  This will be his fate for the rest of his life, even after Mokone would have served the full term of his sentence.

Kelder reminded the Parole Board that between 1993 and 2009, approximately 222 farm attacks took place in Limpopo, during which 119 farmers had been murdered.  "Under these circumstances, tougher action should rather be taken against people who commit violent crimes, which entails that someone like Mokone, who has served less than half of his sentence, should not even be considered for parole," Kelder added.

Statement issued by Nantes Kelder, Head: Community Safety, AfriForum, June 30 2010

Just after this statement was released, we were informed that Mokone’s application for parole had been denied and that he will only be allowed to reapply in 2011.

NINE suspects have been arrested in connection with a cattle attack on a local farmer’s cattle three weeks ago. The arrests were made by a special police task team established just a couple of days ago — incorporating members of the dog unit, the detective unit, crime prevention, crime intelligence and the stock theft unit — under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dingaan Khumalo.

The team was established after a Kokstad farmer, whose cattle were brutally attacked at the end of May, found a placard fastened to his gate last weekend demanding that he and his employees vacate the farm within one month or they will be killed.

Allistar McDougal, a dairy farmer of Driefontein farm near Kokstad, received the death threat after weeks of intimidation. Three weeks ago, criminals injured 37 of his cattle. Eight were put down after they were found hamstrung. They also burnt 150 hay bales worth about R45 000. In the note, the criminals claimed to be McDougal’s former employees. They demanded that he and his employees, who came with him from Limpopo four years ago, vacate the area or they will be back to kill them. “All the employees you dismissed from your employment are back. According to a decision they have made, all your employees that you have hired last should go back to Limpopo where they belong. This is not Limpopo,” says the placard.