Tangeni Amupadhi
Sello Masinyane has been unable to sleep peacefully since July 8. Horrific images keep flashing in his mind; images similar to what happened to James Byrd Jr – a black man killed by Ku Klux Klan followers in Texas last month after being tied to a truck, dragged for kilometres and dismembered.
But Masinyane’s story is set in Parys in the Free State and he has lived to tell it. His day began routinely – he was one of two Eskom workers travelling to farms to check electricity lines.
At about 11am Masinyane and his assistant, Isaak Mogale, arrived at the farm Tweefonteine. An Eskom lock at the gate to the farm had been tampered with, but they dismissed it as children’s pranks. They cut the padlock, replaced it and entered the farm.
A car drove towards them at high speed and screeched to a halt next to their company vehicle. “Kaffirs, kaffirs, kaffirs … I’m going to kill you like dogs today,” Masinyane says the farmowner, Chris van Zyl, screamed at them. “Get out of the car.”
Van Zyl allegedly shot holes in three tyres of the car, which had an Eskom logo on the side, then removed the keys.
“I said: `Baas, please call the police if you don’t trust us; we are from Eskom,'” Masinyane recalls. “He replied: `I don’t talk to kaffirs.'”
He says Van Zyl refused to look at Eskom identification they showed him. He told Masinyane to lie face down on the ground while he dealt with Mogale.
Masinyane says a shot rang out and Mogale fell to the ground. Not waiting to see what happened, Masinyane ran for his life. He claims he did not get far before Van Zyl drove up on a motorbike and knocked him over.
Masinyane claims Van Zyl then tied his hands together, tied him to the motorbike and dragged him for a few minutes.
Van Zyl then allegedly tied Masinyane and Mogale to an Eskom pole and told them to watch him shoot at the remaining undamaged tyre of their car. “This is what I’m going to do to you,” Van Zyl allegedly taunted them in the presence of his wife and son.
Five hours later another pair of Eskom employees arrived and pleaded with Van Zyl to let their colleagues go. He refused, calling them “kaffernaaiers”.
Superintendent Danie Truter, station commissioner of the Parys police, says when he arrived shortly afterwards with two detectives, Van Zyl refused to allow them onto his farm. He demanded that police officers attached to the local farmwatch arrive before he freed the two.
Masinyane says Van Zyl stopped a black policeman from untying them, ordering that it be done by a white officer.
He then left, leaving the four Eskom workers to change the punctured wheels of the car. He returned three hours later and let them leave – eight hours after Masinyane and Mogale had arrived at the farm.
Truter says the farmer claims he detained the men because they did not seek his permission to enter the farm despite an Eskom agreement that this would be done.
Masinyane and Mogale were taken to hospital where they were treated for their bruises and abrasions.
Van Zyl has laid charges of trespassing against the two men. Eskom, Masinyane and Mogale have reciprocated with charges of attempted murder, assault, malicious damage to property and crimen injuria.
Truter says Van Zyl has not been arrested because he is well known in the area.
When contacted by the Mail & Guardian this week, Van Zyl said the reporter should first learn Afrikaans, then make an appointment to hear his side of the story. He threatened to sue the M&G for libel.