Update: Coffin accused claim theft was motive
Does a wave of crime in the Blinkpan area, where a security guard was killed in October, have a connection with the infamous coffin case?
Information received from a trusted source has is that Victor Mlotshwa, who was placed in a coffin and threatened that he would be doused with petrol, was allegedly caught in possession of stolen copper cable on the said day.
The incident happened in August.
Mr Mlotshwa told the media that he was walking towards Middelburg and took a footpath when he was confronted by Willem Oosthuyzen and Theo Jackson in two vehicles and accused of trespassing.
He said that he was tied with cable ties and taken to a nearby farm where one of the accused watched over him whilst another went to fetch a coffin.
The interview was cut short when a journalist asked Mr Mlotshwa how he escaped from the coffin.
The source say that the accused caught Mr Mlotshwa because he was in possession of suspected stolen copper cable.
The men are said to have abandoned their plans to take him to the police station when he allegedly threatened the safety of their families and promised to burn their crop fields.
“They placed him in the coffin to scare him off the farm and had no plans to bury him alive as widely publicised,” the source claims.
“If they wanted to do that, they would not have let him go. They even dropped him off next to the road. This is a crime thing, not a race thing. What they did was very wrong. But it was not because of race, it was because of crime.”
A fund, to support Oosthuyzen and Jackson, has been created. A Facebook post, of which the origin is unknown, reads “We all know the truth of what happens on farms everyday. They are not murderers…”
Neither the family nor the accused’s lawyer, Christo Geldenhuys, wanted to comment on the matter.
• David Lalenda, originally from the Northern Cape, was murdered in his house in October. He worked as a security guard to look after a herd of cattle on a farm in the Blinkpan area. Evidence indicates that the murder can be connected to a syndicate that slaughters animals in the area.
• On a neighbouring farm, 26 cattle were slaughtered in one month.
• In a previous crime report, a man arrested in possession of copper cable in the same area, admitted to police that he will continue to steel copper if released on bail and even if he is convicted, because it is such a lucrative business that he will be able to pay his bail as well as his fine with funds generated from copper theft.
Read other news here:
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Video: Gemeenskap groet Pottie
Copper thieves busted in Kriel
(Video) Update: Christmas in jail for coffin case suspects
(Breaking News) Coffin case: Only ANC Youth League granted permission to protest
Update: Three major political parties to protest during coffin case
Update: Juju on his way to Middelburg
Opvolg: Doodskis was vir afgestorwe werker
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