Tears and fury greeted a Limpopo High Court decision on Wednesday to withdraw murder charges against one of three men accused of killing two Black women and dumping their bodies in a pig enclosure outside Polokwane last year.
Prosecutors said Adrian de Wet, 20, who was a supervisor on the farm, has agreed to testify for the state. In sworn statements he claims farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier, 60, shot Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, after accusing them of trespassing in search of food on 5 August 2024. De Wet says he then helped dispose of the bodies under “immediate duress.”
Judge Thabo Kekana granted the state’s application to drop all charges against De Wet. Moments after proceedings ended he was ushered from the courtroom into protective custody pending the remainder of the trial, which resumes 6 October.
Outside, Makgato’s brother Walter wept. “One of the people who took my sister’s life is already free. Where is justice?” he told reporters.
The two remaining accused—Olivier and fellow worker William Musora, 50—remain in custody and have yet to enter pleas.
The case has reignited racial tensions in rural South Africa, where most commercial farmland is still white-owned three decades after apartheid’s fall and Black labourers often earn subsistence wages. Advocacy groups say the killings underscore deep inequalities and lingering mistrust on many farms.
A police spokesman confirmed that ballistics tests and forensic evidence recovered from the pig pens form part of the state’s case. Prosecutors declined to comment on any plea negotiations.
If convicted, Olivier and Musora face possible life sentences.