Racist murders

Farmer fed women’s bodies to pigs

(Bild: EPA (Symbolbild))

Police in South Africa have made a gruesome discovery in a pigsty near the village of Mankweng: they found the remains of two women who were allegedly killed by the owner of the farm. He is said to have then fed the bodies to the animals. 

The white owner of the farm, Zachariah Olivier (60), and two of his employees were arrested and had to stand trial for murder on Friday. The motive for the crime initially remained unclear.

The suspects can be seen in this article:

Women had disappeared after visiting farm
According to the police, they had started the investigation following a missing person's report. According to the report, a 45-year-old woman and her 35-year-old companion had not turned up after visiting a farm in mid-August. The remains of the two women were finally discovered three days later in the pigsty of the farm in the Limpopo province around 350 kilometers northeast of Johannesburg.

Victims are said to have been looking for food
According to the public prosecutor's office, the suspects apparently fired several shots at their victims. The women's companion, a 47-year-old foreign national, was also shot and taken to hospital. According to reports, the man is the husband of the younger woman. The trio had apparently strayed onto the farm in search of usable food.

South Africans are shown here protesting against the possibility of bail for the suspects:

Protests against release on bail
The deaths of the two women sparked outrage in South Africa. Dozens of people protested outside the courthouse on Friday against the release of the suspects on bail. The women's wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said it was "appalled and outraged" and called for "decisive action to curb violence against women". The largest opposition party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), declared that it "condemns the gruesome murder of two black women by racist white farmers".

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Police figures released on Friday show that almost 6,200 people were murdered in South Africa between April and June this year.