Farmers due in court for vigilante attack

2016-05-26 07:41

Parys - Three men are expected to appear in the Parys Magistrate's Court on Thursday in connection with the alleged vigilante killing of two men suspected of involvement in a farm attack.

One of them is an 18-year-old matric pupil,Netwerk24 reported on Thursday.

Loedie van der Westhuizen, 73, alleged that while he was feeding his dogs on his farm near Parys on January 6, two armed men confronted him and demanded R20 000.

He claimed he was pistol-whipped, but managed to run into his house and press a panic button. His attackers ran away.

A group of local farmers tracked and confronted the two suspected attackers, Samuel Tjixa and Simon Jubeba, about 8km from the farm. The farmers allegedly assaulted them before handing them to police.

Tjixa was admitted to Parys Provincial Hospital and Jubeba to Pelonomi Hospital. Jubeba was declared dead on arrival. Tjixa died later.

The three men due in court on Thursday were arrested on Tuesday. They were expected to appear in the same court again on Friday with another group of eight farmers who were allegedly also involved in the attack.

Doubts over farm attack

It has since been reported that the attack on Van der Westhuizen apparently never happened.

Netwerk24 reported this week that Van der Westhuizen is believed to have hit and injured himself with a broomstick while trying to chase two men off his farm, before he pressed a panic button.

Some of the 40 men, most of them farmers, who were present when Van der Westhuizen’s two alleged attackers were beaten to death, have made statements to police.

“I’m not going to jail for someone else’s actions,” one of them reportedly said.

Tjixa and Jubeba went to Van der Westhuizen’s farm to get salaries his son, Boeta, owed them, Netwerk24 reported.