A Limpopo farmer has been fined R10 000 or two-and-a-half years’ in prison for shooting dead a boy he mistook for a dog, the newspaper Beeld reported on Wednesday.
Found guilty of culpable homicide, Marchel Nel (39) was fined R20 000 or five years’ in prison by the Thabazimbi Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
However, half of both the fine and the jail term were suspended for five years, said senior state prosecutor Renier van Rooyen.
Nel was charged with the July 2006 murder of 11-year-old Sello Pete, who was hit by a bullet from his gun.
The farmer testified that he had shot at what he thought was a dog. Nel, who farms on a smallholding in the Spitskop area, had been having problems with a stray dog.
He immediately gave the child mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and took him to hospital.
The court heard that Nel was on antiretrovirals because he ingested blood from the boy. – Sapa