/ 28 March 2001

FARMER ON MURDER CHARGE AFTER FENCE ELECTROCUTES MAN

AN Mpumalanga sugar cane farmer faces a murder charge after a suspected thief was electrocuted when he grabbed hold of an electric fence on Sunday. A 21-year-old Zimbabwean man was found still holding onto the fence that encloses a sugar cane field at Krokodildrift Farm, near Groblersdal. Police representative Inspector Olga Ballot said the farmer switched on the fence before he went to bed on Saturday night. “The next day he found some sugar cane had been cut, so he checked the perimeter of the fence and found the man’s body,” said Ballot. The farmer immediately alerted police, who are investigating a murder case. – African Eye News Service