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20101221

Zim man held for torching Boer couple, Cumberland

Zimbabwean held for burning Boer couple Aucamp to death, Cumberland, Thabazimbi

21 Dec 2010 A 26-year-old Zimbabwean man appeared before the Thabazimbi Magistrate's Court on Monday for allegedly stabbing and then burning the Boer couple Jeremiah Aucamp, 55, and wife (Dorosha or Daleen?)52, to death at their farm Vandas near Cumberland. It’s not known whether the arrested man -- identified as Brighton Mafanedza -- had carried out the attack all by himself.

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Aucamp Casper and Dorosha game farm murder Cumberland DEC152010 torched in car

Picture: the original news item in Rapport newspaper by journalist Celinda Groenewald had identified the wife as Daleen Aucamp.

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Not clear whether the couple were dead when they were loaded into their car and torched:

Limpopo police LtCol Mohale Ramatseba said: “The couple arrived at their farmhouse in the evening and were allegedly attacked by the suspect, a worker at the farm, with a knife. He then allegedly loaded the victims into their Toyota Land Cruiser and drove away for about 25km. The vehicle was found burnt out with the victims inside (the trunk). They were burnt beyond recognition."

The suspect was arrested and found in possession of items belonging to the couple: namely a cellphone, a credit card and R2,000 ($200) in cash. The weapon was also recovered, he said. Nothing else was robbed at the homestead: many items of value were left behind.Mafafedza was denied bail, and his case was postponed to January 20 next year pending further investigations.

The Aucamp couple is survived by daughters Leonie Mans, 24; Linda Botes, 29;  and Mandie Prodehl, 32 as well as  two granddaughters, Marlie, 6 and Antoinette Prodehl, 5.

Their youngest daughter Leonie Mans told Rapport newspaper that after they hadn’t heard from their parents upon their return to the farm from Christmas shopping with their daughters, she and her sister Mandie Prodehl, 32, phoned a neighbour asking him to investigate. However this farmer couldn’t gain access to the property because all the gates, doors and windows were security-locked. The sisters drove to the farm and asked the gardener where their parents and their vehicle could be. This worker had told them the Aucamp couple ‘had gone to buy animal feed in Dwaalboom’. Then a family friend phoned with the news that a burnt-out Land Cruiser was found on a dirt-road outside Dwaalboom. The women rushed there and confirmed that it was the vehicle belonging to their parents.

  • “Police only phoned later that afternoon to say there were two torched bodies in the trunk…”
  • “However the police only phoned us later that afternoon to tell us that they had found two torched bodies in the trunk.” The two sisters identified their parents through the JEWELLERY THEY WERE STILL WEARING. “The police said it seemed as if they were already dead when the car was torched,’ said Ms Mans.
    http://www.praag.co.uk/news/southern-africa/589-man-held-for-burning-couple-to-death.html

Two Boers killed, 1 injured, Hummer driver, Pretoria North

Pieter Coetzee, 60 and Johannes P Kruger, 32, killed on their motorbikes 16 October 2010

  • by man from Zimbabwe in a Hummer who crossed the road and ran into the bikers…

2010-12-21   PRETORIA NORTH. The SA Police know the identity of a male driver of a Hummer, a citizen from Zimbabwe who ran down down and killed two Afrikaners and permanently disabled a third man on their bikes. Pieter Coetzee and Jhannes P Kruger were killed, Pieter Coetzee junior was left permanently disabled. The three Afrikaner men - members of the Christian Motorcyclists’ Association -  were riding to an early-morning prayer meeting in Pretoria North on 16 October 2010. Warrant officer Matthews Nkoadi said today that the public prosecutor is still waiting for the post-mortem results before deciding whether the Hummer driver ‘should be asked to appear in court’… http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Hummer-man-gee-oor-na-2-sterf-20101220 

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  • Another Bernadine Kruger case?

Kruger Bernadinedeliberately run over by black taxi driver who laughed as he drove off[ KrugerBernadineKilledByTaxidriverAccusedMercyvalMatjiInCourtBeeldPicCornelVanHeerdenaug142009_thumb[3] This is not the first time that road-users may have been targetted for deliberate murder by drivers: On 23 February 2009, Afrikaans high school pupil Bernadine Kruger , aged 15, was riding to school at 07:15am on the empty side of a double-laned carriageway in Pretoria when minicab-driver Percyval Matji, 31 drove up at high speed, started riding her bumper, followed her from lane to lane and then hit her while the girl was desperately trying to get away from him on her scooter. When the girl in her school uniform was was tossed into the air and fell to the pavement he drove over her, according to two witnesses who testified in court. He was convicted of her murder by a Pretoria High Court judge on September 11, 2009 – protesting his innocence throughout his trial, although witnesses who were sitting in a traffic tail-back on the opposite side of the dual-carriageway, testified to this murder. Hatji’s defence counsel claimed during cross-examination that one of the witnesses was a ‘white racist who hated black taxi-drivers. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/08/bernadine-krugers-accused-taxi-murderer.html 

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Was the Hummer-driver’s action -  which caused the deaths of Pieter Coetzee and Johannes P Kruger and permanently disabled young Pieter Coetzee on 16 October 2010 in Pretoria North  -- deliberate or not? http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Hummer-man-gee-oor-na-2-sterf-20101220

The SA police have apparently issued a ‘warning’ notification to the driver of the burnt-out Hummer -- who according to earlier reports, was “riding on the wrong side of the road” when his Hummer hit the three Afrikaners riding on the legal side of the road on their bikes. The Hummer was burnt out. The driver, unhurt, ran away.

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Kruger Johannes 32 KILLED PRETORIA NORTH ON BIKE BY HUMMER ENROUTE TO PRAYER MEETING 16oct2010The police have yet to arrest this Hummer driver -  who it is being claimed ‘handed himself in’ two days after he ran away from his burning Hummer after the accident. Some people reportedly claimed he’d fled to Zimbabwe – the police however said today that the Hummer driver claims that he’d been in hospital, being treated for ‘shock’.

Hilda Fourie quotes SAPS warrant-officer  in Beeld newspaper that the 30-year-old driver of the Hummer had ‘handed himself in to the police’ two days after he’d run down and killed the two white men on their motorbikes and permaenntly disabled the young Pieter Coetzee, according to warrant officer Matthews Nkoadi.

Pieter Coetzee, 60, and Johannes P Kruger, 32, members of the Christian Motorcycle Association, were killed instantly when they were run down in Rachel de Beer Street in Pretoria north by the Hummer driver who according to onlookers had suddenly crossed the road and headed straight for the white bikers. Both men died instantly and a third rider,  Pieter Coetzee junior, 24, was permanently disabled and disfigured: he has lost his right-leg above the knee;  and crushed his shoulder, cheek bones and forehead.

Beeld reports that the public prosecutor “ hasn’t yet decided whether to charge the Zimbabwean” – and that’s why he hasn’t been arrested and charged with two murders and one attempted murder as yet.

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HUMMER TWO BODIES PRETORIA NORTH OCT 16 2010

 HUMMER PRETORIA NORTH OCT2010 WHICH KILLED TWO AFRIKANERS AND INJURED THIRD -----------------------

The latest word is that the public prosecutor is ‘waiting for the post-mortem examination’ on the two dead Afrikaners before making a decision as to whether the Hummer-driver “should be asked to appear in court”. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Hummer-man-gee-oor-na-2-sterf-20101220

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Friday, 11 September 2009

Bernadine Kruger’s taxi-murderer Percyval Matji, 30, found guilty

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Afrikaans pupil Bernadine Kruger, riding on her scooter - was followed across two empty lanes, with high-speed, honking taxi-driver Percyval Matji, 31, hot on her heels, switching from lane to lane following her – witnesses testified that he was  ‘ intent on wanting to force her off the road’ on 23 February 2009. When he hit her and she fell to the pavement, he reversed his taxi and ran over the girl. He was found guilty of her murder on Sept 11 2009 by a Pretoria magistrate… http://www.dieburger.com/printArticle.aspx?iframe&aid=0603bae1-0723-46a0-a351-b041a7021264&cid=1708

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  • Initially Matji was charged with culpible homicide – but the Prosecuting Authority agreed with the formal petitions lodged by her mother and the Freedom Front Plus party ‘s legal team to change this charge to murder -- due to ‘overwhelming and convincing evidence before the court’. On Friday, September 11, 2009,  Matji was found guilty of murder and reckless driving by a Pretoria magistrate. Taxi driver guilty of murder

“It was not negligent driving – it was murder: Matji had made a lethal weapon of his vehicle… “

Handing down judgment to Percyval Matji, Magistrate Edmund Patterson said: "It was not a mistake. It was not negligence."On hearing judgment Kruger's mother Elsabe Homan let out a loud "yes". Patterson said from the evidence it was determined that Matji deliberately followed Kruger and "wanted her out of his way". He said Matji had made a lethal weapon of his vehicle by driving at speeds far exceeding the limit.”

 

KrugerBernadineKilledByTaxidriverAccusedMercyvalMatjiInCourtBeeldPicCornelVanHeerdenaug142009This is a picture (by Beeld photographer Cornél van Heerden) of the convicted taxi-driver Percyval Matji, 31, at Pretoria Regional Court. He was found guilty of  murder and reckless driving in the traffic-death of 15-year-old Afrikaans pupil Bernadine Kruger in Pretoria on 23 February 2009..

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The murdered girl’s mother Elsabe Homan, Freedom Front city councillors Dr Conrad Beyers and Advocate Anton Alberts, councillor on the Johannesburg city council, all said they welcomed the decision by the Prosecuting Authority, describing as a watershed-case.

“This sends a message to all reckless drivers that they will have to pay a high price for taking someone’s life, ‘they said in a statement. “This specifically applies to the country’s minitaxi-industry, of which some of its members drive as if they have no responsibility towards anyone else. This decision shows that human life still has some value in our land.’ The Freedom Front Plus will now assist Mrs Homan in lodging civil claims against various people involved in this case. ( for more comment telephone Adv Anton Alberts, tel 083 950 9272.

On February 23, 2009, the Garsfontein High School pupil was enroute to her school with her scooter on a practically empty eastbound dual-carriageway, witnesses testified, when she was run down by the ‘high-speed, aggressively-honking’ taxi-driver, identified as having been Matji. These witnesses were all moving slowly  in a tail-back in the crowded west-bound lane of the dual-carriageway at 7am.

After the Afrikaans teen was hit by Matji’s taxi and was tossed onto the tarmac, he drove over her : testimony…

Beeld journalist Herman Scholtz reported that one of the witnesses, Mrs René van Zyl, testified in the Pretoria Regional Court on August 13 2009 that she and her 11-year-old daughter saw ‘Bernadine flying through the air” while Van Zyl was slowly moving in the rush-hour traffic in the opposite land. Her daughter watched the event unfold and shouted ‘the taxi doesn’t stop,’ testified Mrs Van Zyl, who said her daughter also screamed: ‘He’s going to hit her, he’s going to hit her..’ as she saw the schoolgirl fly throught the air for several metres, and getting hit by the taxi after she fell on the tarmac.

Other two witnesses, Hugo Vermaak and Mrs Sanet Venter, also testified, as did Mrs van Zyl, that the taxi-driver was ‘honking his horn loudly, constantly and aggressively as he was approaching the girl on her schooter from behind at high speed. They all saw the taxi hitting the girl in the adjacent east-bound lane while the three witnesses were moving very slowly, stuck in a traffic jam going in westerly direction. All testified that the east-bound lane was clear, with no other traffic next to the  taxi and Bernadine’s scooter going in the same direction.

Kruger Bernadinedeliberately run over by black taxi driver who laughed as he drove off Picture: Bernadine Kruger, who was murdered by a high-speed taxi-driver while riding to school on her scooter on an near-empty eastbound dual-carriageway in Pretoria on her scooter. Three witnesses testified about the taxi-driver’s aggressive behaviour during this incident. He was found guilty of murder on Sept 11 2009.

The accused driver, Matji, had approached the girl on the scooter at high speed and did not slow down, witnesses said. She tried to move over to the left lane but the taxi then hit her at such high speed that she flew through the air and fell several metres further in the roadway – at which point the same taxi-driver then drove right over the stricken girl. She died on the scene.

One witness driver in the opposite lane, named Vermaak testified that the taxi-driver ‘continued to drive a long distance’ before finally coming to a stop, and driving back to the accident scene.

When asked whether there was any good reason for the taxi-driver to honk his horn so persistently, Vermaak replied that ‘Bernadine was first riding in the left lane with the honking taxi right on her bumper. She then turned on her flashing lights and moved to the right lane but the taxi followed her there, honking hard.’ Vermaak said there were no other commuters on the double-lane roadway near the taxi and the girl on the scooter.

“It just looked as if he wanted to force her off the road altogether,’ said Vermaak. All three eye witnesses testified that Matji could easily have avoided the accident by applying the brakes, i.e. by slowing down -- or by simply moving over to the unoccupied left lane.

‘Witness is a white man who hates taxi-drivers”…  defence counsel Redani Mufumadi:

During cross-examination by defence advocate Rendani Mufumadi, Matji claiimed that ‘Bernadine had pulled in front of him and that he honked the horn ‘when he realised her timing wasn’t perfect, and that he then ran her down accidentially’. 

  • The defence advocate submitted a racist motive, namely that witness Mr Vermaak, “as a white man, hated (black) taxi-drivers’… ‘I put it to you that you have hidden motives, that’s why you are testifiying…’ 

However, public prosecutor advocate Sanet van Rensburg’s objection to this accusation was upheld by regional magistrate Edmund Patterson. Bernadine’s mom Mrs  Elsabé Homan wept bitterly while listening to the testimony describing her daughter’s last moments on earth, Beeld reported.