A PARYS farmer, Chris van Zyl, was this week fined R19 000 for brutally assaulting two Eskom workers by tying them to a motorbike, dragging them around naked, shooting at them and saying, ?I will show you how I will kill kaffirs.?
However, magistrate Johan Visagie this week refused to declare Van Zyl unfit to possess a firearm, saying that this would amount to a passport for those who wished to enter the farmer?s property with criminal intent.
Last week Van Zyl appeared in court again on a charge of the murder of a black man he suspected of being a burglar. The case was remanded till June.
Eskom workers Sello Masinyane and Issak Mogale, who barely survived the ordeal, told the Parys Regional Court about their ordeal at the hands of Van Zyl in July 1998 when they were repairing power lines at his farm.
Masinyane told the court of a traumatic eight-hour ordeal: ?He [Van Zyl] punched me, kicked me in the groin and ribs, then undressed me before tying me to a motorbike with rope. He undressed us and dragged us along while calling us ?kaffirs?. He said, ?I will show you how I will kill kaffirs. This is not Mandela?s farm. I will kill you like dogs today.??
Visagie said Van Zyl?s actions ?undermined the efforts of those who were trying to improve race relations and make South Africa a better place to live in.? Van Zyl was given leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
A farmworker researcher and activist in the Free State, Eugene Roelofse, said: ?I find it difficult to understand why Van Zyl was not charged in terms of the Firearms Act. What he did involved at least four different shots from a heavy calibre weapon. He was found to be aggressive and angry by police and should not be found fit to carry a firearm. I hope that during the appeal the confiscation of the firearm will be regarded as a matter of priority. And it should be taken into account that before this sentence, only three days before, the same farmer was in court for the murder of a black person.?
He intends filing complaints on behalf of the Eskom workers with the Human Rights Commission and the Independent Complaints Directorate on the basis that Van Zyl has not been charged fully.