A white farmer in South Africa is at the centre of a chilling murder trial after being accused of shooting two black women who were searching for food and then feeding their bodies to pigs.
Zachariah Johannes Olivier, 60, is alleged to have gunned down Lucia Ndlovu, 34, and Maria Makgato, 45, when he found them looking through waste at his pig farm near Polokwane in Limpopo province.
The disturbing case has sparked outrage across the country and cast a spotlight on long-standing racial divisions in farming communities, where white landowners dominate and black workers make up most of the labour force.
Adrian Rudolph de Wet, a 20-year-old farmworker, has turned state witness and told the court this week that Olivier shot the women after accusing them of trespassing.
Local media say the women had been gathering expired dairy products thrown out for the pigs.
De Wet, one of three men originally arrested over the killings, is expected to claim that Olivier forced him to help dispose of the bodies by feeding them to pigs.
Reports suggest a third person, believed to be Ndlovu’s husband, was also shot during the incident but managed to escape and alert police.
Officers later found the decomposed remains of both women inside a pigsty.
Zachariah Johannes Olivier, Adrian Rudolph de Wet, and William Musrora were all charged with two counts of premeditated murder, one count of attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm, and attempting to obstruct justice
Maria Makgato, 45, pictured, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, are said to have been gunned down when the farmer found them looking for food at his farm
Olivier, de Wet and another farmhand, William Musrora, 50, a black Zimbabwean, were all charged with two counts of premeditated murder, one count of attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm, and attempting to obstruct justice.
De Wet’s lawyers say he acted under pressure and should be cleared if his version is accepted by the court.
On Monday, members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a radical left-wing political party, showed up outside the courthouse, calling for Olivier’s business to be shut down.
The EFF previously demanded a ban on pork sales from the farm, stating on social media: ‘Our communities can’t be fed animals that were made to consume human flesh.’
The killings have dominated headlines in South Africa, where land ownership remains a deeply sensitive issue nearly three decades after apartheid.
Much of the country’s farmland is still in white hands. In June, a political crisis ensued when the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, greenlit a divisive law that gives the state the liberty to take away lands without compensating the owners.
It led to an infamous ambush at the White House, where US president Donald Trump confronted him about the treatment of white landowners. The trial is set to continue next week.
Demonstrators gathered outside the court to demand justice in the case that has dominated headlines in South Africa
De Wet, one of three men originally arrested over the killings, is expected to claim that Olivier forced him to help dispose of the bodies by feeding them to pigs – not pictured
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