Three found guilty of KZN farm murder

24 April 2014 - 09:31
By Sapa

They confessed to shooting 78-year-old farmer Willem Weites after pretending they wished to buy milk from him.

Three men were found guilty by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday of attacking, robbing and killing a Vryheid farmer.

Two of the men were from Tembisa in Gauteng and the other from Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal.

The three admitted they attacked and robbed a farming family which sold milk and grain in the Vryheid area in September 2013.

They confessed to shooting 78-year-old farmer Willem Weites after pretending they wished to buy milk from him.

The attack was planned by Vryheid man Mzumuhle Ntshangase, 30, who arranged for Moses Sigawuge, 34, and Big-Boy Ncube, 29, to travel from Tembisa to Vryheid.

Ntshangase persuaded them to travel to Vryheid by telling them that Weites kept money on the farm.

They admitted to robbing Weites and his family of R40,000 and other items, and that each of them received R5300 from the attack.

After they were convicted of the murder and aggravated robbery, police constable Adolph Engelbrecht testified that investigation of their cellphone records placed the men at the scene.

Everlien Weites, who farmed with her father, said the family decided to move into Vryheid for safety and that many items or events on the farm made her pine for her father.

Engelbrecht said that in the past two years, five farm attacks had occurred in the area.

Two farmers had been killed and at funerals tearful women asked when they would be protected.

Acting Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati would impose a sentence on Friday.