you how I kill kaffirs’ A Free State court heard this week of the eight-hour ordeal of two Eskom workers at the hands of a local farmer
Glenda Daniels The dusty clock in the court did not work, the skewed no-smoking sign – stuck on with Prestik – was upside down and the proceedings took place in Afrikaans. A lonely South African flag perched on the magistrate’s desk looked incongruous. It was as though time stood still in the Parys Regional Court where one of the Free State’s wealthiest farmers, Chris van Zyl, appeared this week on charges of attempted murder, assault and malicious damage to property of two Eskom workers. It has taken two years for the farmer to appear in the dock. The burly, moustached Van Zyl appeared before magistrate Johan Visagie this week as Sello Masinyane described the brutality he had suffered at the hands of the farmer.
Masinyane said he and his assistant, an elderly and frail Isaak Mogale, were inspecting electricity lines on Van Zyl’s farm in Tweefontein, Parys, at 11am on July 8 1998, when the farmer pitched up and started calling them “kaffirs”, before brutally assaulting them almost to the point of killing them during a tortuous eight-hour ordeal.
He told the court that Van Zyl “punched me, kicked me in the groin and ribs, shot at me, then undressed me before tying me to a motorbike and dragging me while he rode the bike, calling us kaffirs”. Masinyane, who to this day is suffering mental problems and ill-health due to his traumatic time at the hands of the farmer, told the Mail & Guardian outside court this week that Van Zyl said to him: “Kaffir, this is not Mandela’s farm. I’m going to show you how I will kill a kaffir. I will kill you like dogs today.” Masinyane testified that after he arrived in a bakkie at Van Zyl’s farm: “I tried to unlock the gate to the farm. Then a car at high speed screeched to a halt next to us. Van Zyl started screaming at us, ‘Kaffirs what are you doing here, get out of the car.’ We got out, then he started shooting at my vehicle’s tyres. “The farmer pulled off our clothes and started tying us up with a rope, and then said: ‘I will show you how I kill kaffirs.'”
Masinyane said Van Zyl put him on the ground and started firing shots between his legs while he kicked him in the groin, ribs, kidneys and all over his body. When Masinyane tried to run for his life, Van Zyl allegedly tied him up with rope and attached him to a motorbike, from which he was dragged. His assistant Mogale was also tied up with rope. Masinyane told the M&G that Van Zyl had shown up with two family members and said: “I’m going to show you how to kill a kaffir. I will shoot you like a slave.” At one point, said Masinyane: “He tied my feet to my neck and said, ‘I will show you how I can blow up your head.'”
According to Masinyane, five hours after the beating and tying up with rope, some of the workers’ Eskom colleagues appeared on the scene and pleaded with Van Zyl to let them go. He refused, and in turn called them “kaffirnaaiers”. The police then arrived and still Van Zyl was reluctant to untie his hands, Masinyane told the court.
Masinyane suffered internal bleeding due to his injuries, and he still has nightmares, problems with sexual function and is expecting to undergo surgery to his pelvis in the near future. A witness from Eskom, Marius Greeff, told the court this week that when he appeared on the scene he found that Masinyane was tied to a pole. “I found all four tyres of Masinyane’s [vehicle] shot to pieces. His shirt and shoes were missing. Van Zyl refused to give me permission to untie him. Van Zyl looked very upset. Masinyane’s hands were so swollen when the police arrived that he couldn’t sign his name. He has been receiving psychiatric treatment ever since the incident,” Greeff said. Van Zyl’s attorney, Rassie Erasmus, refuted the allegations in court. He said his client had responded to an appeal from his wife, who said there was a strange vehicle near his cattle. He claims that Masinyane and his colleague had not been able to provide any form of identification and that their injuries were sustained when they fell while trying to run away. He denied having assaulted anyone, or calling anyone a kaffir. The case was postponed to September 15 to hear medical evidence.
A researcher in Parys, Eugene Roelofse, also author of a soon-to- be-published book on the brutality of farmers, says that this is one of the few cases where a farmer lands in court. There are hundreds more who get away with murder, he says. Workers in rural areas, he says, are often ignorant of the law and feel it does not protect them enough.
“They often drop cases after getting intimidated by the farmer. They fear losing their jobs and homes. The police often don’t believe them. Workers have said that the police often chase them away or they just take down their names and then phone the farmer to say there is a worker trying to make trouble,” Roelofse says. “Often farmers just get away with fines. In this case, fining a guy like Van Zyl is a waste of time, he is so wealthy,” he says.