Farmers appear in Evander court for alleged murder of two KZN men
The police also found a human brain wrapped in a plastic bag buried elsewhere on the farm after receiving a tip-off about burnt bodies buried on a farm.
Farmers Abraham de la Rey (52) and Arthur Underhay (39) appeared in the Evander Magistrate’s Court to face charges of murder, violating a corpse, defeating the course of justice and intimidation on January 24.
They were arrested on January 18.
Their arrests came after the police and experts exhumed charred human remains from a shallow grave on a farm in the Evander area on June 15 last year. They also found a human brain wrapped in a plastic bag buried elsewhere on the farm.
The police descended on the farm after receiving a tip about burnt bodies buried on a farm.
They suspected the remains were that of two KwaZulu-Natal men reported missing on June 11.
The police could not confirm at the time if the remains were indeed those of Sthembiso Mnikathi (33) and Buhlebuyeza Ximba (35).
The brain underwent DNA tests on June 23, and the missing men’s families also provided their DNA for comparison. The results came back positive.
An acquaintance of the two missing men, Nathi Dladla, told Ridge Times he was with them shortly before the missing persons report was opened at the Leandra Police Station.
However, he did not want to elaborate on what had happened.
The SAPS first opened an inquest docket before the arrest of the two suspects.
Neh Mnikathi, Sthembiso’s uncle, said the two families were in pain over what had happened to their children.
Mnikathi said the families would be relieved if the results showed the remains were that of their children because they want to take them home for burial.
Initially, Mnikathi and Ximba were reported missing in Leandra, but the SAPS transferred the missing persons case to Kinross before it ended up with the Evander SAPS.
On Wednesday in court, an argument erupted between the magistrate, the prosecutor and the advocate representing the two suspects about the court’s slow pace.
The advocate accused the court of delaying to commence and insisted it move his clients’ hearing to the B court.
De la Rey and Underhay were supposed to apply for bail. The magistrate responded, saying there are many bail application hearings before his clients’ applications.
The magistrate said the court treats every case equally.
Considering the water shortage in the Govan Mbeki Municipality at the time, all the parties agreed to postpone the case to January 30 for bail application.
* The article has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of one of the accused’s name.
