ERIKA DE BEER, Pretoria | Thursday
A FORMER member of the Pietersburg Noordelikes rugby club told the Pretoria High Court on Thursday how one of his ex-team mates, accused of murdering Northern Province teenager Tshepo Matloha, had said he would ”shoot the kaffirs”.
Louis Strydom was testifying in the trial of Riaan Botha and four others who are accused of murdering Matloha on the Northern Province farm Inderheken on March 25 last year.
Botha, Kobus Joubert, Ben Korff, Francois Velloen and Corn Kloppers are also charged with attempted murder relating to the attack on two of Matloha’s friends.
Strydom said a group of Noordelikes rugby players were on the farm for a team-building weekend and went for a drive on the Sunday.
Botha at some point told the driver to stop, saying: ”There are kaffirs on the farm.”
Strydom said he saw a black man in the road further down who was about to climb through the fence to a neighbouring farm.
While the man was still in the road, Botha fired a shot at him.
After two more shots, the man ran back into a bush.
Botha got back on the bakkie and ordered the driver to move on.
”Today I am going to shoot the kaffirs dead,” Botha said according to Strydom’s testimony.
Strydom said the first time he saw Matolha, the teenager made rattling sounds as though he was choking in his own blood.
Strydom was with the five accused and some other men on that day, he told the court.
He, another state witness, Charl-Che Gouws, and accused Ben Korff were not with the others when Matloha was caught, he said.
When they rejoined the others, Strydom saw Matloha lying in the back of the bakkie. He seemed unconscious and there was a little blood on his face at his mouth, nose, around his eyes and in his neck.
At a later stage, two of the other accused ? Francois Velloen and Corne Kloppers took him by the arms and feet and threw him off the bakkie, Strydom testified. Matloha fell about 75cm onto a road.
When he hit the road, Matloha still seemed to be unconscious, Strydom said. Riaan Botha, on whose mother’s farm the incident took place, walked closer to him, saying it was ”kaffirs” like him (Matloha) who killed and raped white people on farms, Strydom said.
He said Botha then hit Matloha in the face six or seven times with the butt of his .22 rifle.
”He took the rifle like one would take a spade. He hit him hard,” Strydom said.
The rifle struck Matloha in the middle of his face, on his nose, eye and mouth.
”I told them they should stop, they would kill him,” Strydom said. But Botha struck another blow.
Afterwards, Matloha’s eyes and face were swollen.
Botha gave orders that Matloha should be left behind some bushes ”so his friends can come and get him”.
Korff and Gouws took Matloha and put him behind a bush, Strydom testified.
Besides the murder charge, the five face two charges of attempted murder in connection with an attack on Matloha’s friends, Alex and Melford Motlokwana.
A charge of malicious damage to property relates to the killing of five dogs, while one of defeating the ends of justice pertains to the allegation that they threw Matloha’s body into a distant dam.
The trial continues. – Sapa