OWN CORRESPONDENT, Potchefstroom | Wednesday
A SOUTH African farmer allegedly threw highly toxic tablets into his on workers’ homes, harming 47 of them, himself and three policemen on the scene, police reported on Wednesday.
Nineteen children were among those admitted to hospital vomiting, feeling drowsy and complaining of muscular pains from the phostoxin, a substance used for treating grain in storage.
The farmer, 52-year-old John McGregor, allegedly threw phostoxin tablets into his workers’ houses on Monday night and Tuesday morning after they apparently refused to report for work.
The victims’ ages ranged from three months old to 65 years old.
Superintendent Louis Jacobs, from the North West police, said that McGregor appeared in the Potchefstroom magistrate’s court on Tuesday and was charged with attempted murder.
He was released on R5000 ($637) and ordered not to go near the homes of his workers.
McGregor is known in his home town of Potchefstroom, southwest of Johannesburg, for his extreme right-wing views, The Citizen newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Police were alerted to the potential tragedy by labourers who arrived at the police station with one of the tablets in an old tobacco bag.
Jacobs said they immediately made arrangements to transport workers to hospital in a police truck.
He said around 70 people – the workers and their children – were accommodated for the night in a hall outside Potchefstroom, adding that the poison could have serious effects for up to 48 hours.
Forensic experts will examine the houses on Wednesday. – AFP