Two accused of killing emerging farmer ‘receiving death threats’

The judge presiding in the trial of a Brits businessman and his son, who are accused of murdering farmer Muraga Mavula, yesterday instructed the media not to take or publish photos of the accused’s faces as they had received threats.

Judge Tshifiwa Maumela made the ruling while attending an inspection at the scene on a dirt road in Sanddrift West, where Mavula died in December 2015.

The state alleges building contractor Schalk Myburgh and his son, Schalk Myburgh Jnr, murdered Mavula by severely assaulting him and driving over him with their bakkie. But the pair denied being responsible for his death.

They admitted being involved in an altercation with Mavula during which they claimed they had acted in self-defence, but denied driving over him and insisted they did not know how he had sustained all of his injuries.

Myburgh Jnr said in his plea explanation he had stopped and confronted Mavula after seeing a bakkie with its lights on parked in the road and a group of men loading animal carcasses on the bakkie.

The accused alleged Mavula and other men had attacked them, but they only found out he had died when they went to report the attack to the police.

Mavula’s widow, Anna, yesterday drew a line in the sand at the scene to show where she had found her husband’s body. She was very emotional but did not cry.

She said that when she had stopped at the scene, her children were hiding in the long grass next to the road, but came out when they saw her.

The two accused pointed out a different spot in the road as the scene of the incident.

Mavula testified that her husband was already dead when she arrived at the scene. His shirt was torn, his pants were missing and it looked as if both of his legs had been broken as the flesh was torn.

She covered her husband’s body with a cloth because she did not want her children to see him like that. She also returned to the scene where her husband had died the next day for ritual purposes. The trial will resume on Monday. – news@citizen.co.za