A case against the Normandien farmer who had allegedly shot and killed a hunter has been dragging on for four years. Joseph Robert Geldenhys appeared
in the Newcastle Regional Court yesterday in connection with the shooting to death of Sipho Mbatha who was allegedly illegally hunting with dogs on Mr Geldenhuys’s farm in 2011.
Ian Colditz, Newcastle Regional Court Magistrate, was not happy with the ongoing delay in finalising the court case. He cited the delay in the ‘non-availability’ of a witness – a farm worker – who has been on the ‘run’ since the shooting.
It was heard that it was this witness who had alerted Mr Geldenhuys that a group of people with hunting dogs were on the farm. A teenager, who was only nine-years-old who was with the hunting party – took to the witness stand for most of the day – to explain what happened and how Mr Mbatha had been shot dead – allegedly by the farmer.
Another witness, Zamani Hlatshwayo, who was hunting on the other side of the farm when gunshots were heard, told the Court ‘how we had to run when we heard the gunfire’.
Mr Hlathshwayo told the Court that the ‘on the run witness’ was a ‘whistle blower’ who had been paid by his employer to ‘disappear so he cannot give evidence’.