The man, who lived alone on his farm after separating from his wife, lured women by advertising jobs on Facebook.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has secured a landmark conviction against a 42-year-old Eastern Cape farmer. Picture: iStock
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has secured a conviction against a 42-year-old Eastern Cape farmer found guilty of trafficking, rape, and brutal assaults after luring young women to his remote farm under false promises of work.
The Xamdeboo (formerly Aberdeen) farmer, Louis Stephanus Lategan, appeared in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Makhanda on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, where the court handed down the verdict.
Conviction
Lategan was convicted on six counts of trafficking in persons, five counts of rape, two counts of assault as a competent verdict on two of the rape counts, three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to children, two counts of common assault on adult workers, one count of assaulting a child, as well as two counts of unlawful possession of more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
According to the NPA, the charges stem from offences committed on his remote farm, to which he lured young women seeking employment as au pairs, drugged them and raped them.
Luring women
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tiyali said evidence led in court revealed that Lategan, who lived alone on his farm in 2020 after separating from his wife, advertised on Facebook for an au pair to work on his farm and care for his minor children when they visited.
Tiyali said Lategan later also used an employment agency for the same purpose; however, his real intentions were to acquire the presence of young women on the farm in order to sexually exploit them.
“On different occasions between 2020 and 2023, young women, aged between 18 and 21 years of age, desperate for employment, responded to the advertisements and accepted the accused’s employment offers with the promise of paying them between R5 000 and R30 000 for their services.”
Drugged
Tiyali added that the young women came from cities such as Bloemfontein, Emalahleni, Standerton, and Amanzimtoti.
“The accused, on different occasions, made the complainants consume alcohol or a drink laced with a drug that made them extremely drowsy, and they would find themselves naked on the following morning, with pain in their genital area.”
Investigation
According to Tiyali, prosecution-guided investigations that began in 2023 also revealed physical abuse of some of the workers on the farm, with some assaulted with a broomstick, sjambok, kicked with feet and pushed into water.
“During the marathon trial, which ran for more than 18 months, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Nickie Turner, led the evidence of 24 witnesses.
“The accused, who had pleaded not guilty, also called four witnesses in his defence and testified himself. The court only acquitted him on one count of rape as the child complainant did not testify,” Tiyali said.
Sentencing
The case has been postponed to Monday, 21 September 2026, for sentencing proceedings.
Tiyali said the NPA remains steadfast in its efforts to combat gender-based violence and femicide and to ensure that victims and their families receive justice through the criminal justice system.
