Crime & justice

South Africa: White Farmer Accused of Feeding Black Women to Pigs

AUG 5 2025·Updated SEP 3 2025

Story

Above: Polokwane High Court. Image credit: X @CapricornFMNews via The South African

The Facts

Three men appeared in the Limpopo High Court on Monday facing murder charges after two women, Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were found decomposed in a pigsty on Aug. 20, 2024, following their disappearance three days prior.
CNN
BBC News
South African Police Service
Farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier, 60, supervisor Adrian de Wet, 20, and employee William Musora, 45, face charges including two counts of murder, attempted murder, obstruction of justice and illegal firearm possession.
CNN
BBC News
The women were allegedly shot while searching for expired dairy products on the farm in Sebayeng, outside Mankweng in northern Limpopo province, according to police investigations.
The Times (UK)
NBC
News18
A 47-year-old man who accompanied the women survived the shooting but was hospitalized. He later told reporters that one of the victims was his wife and the other was their neighbor, who had come to collect discarded food.
Face 2 Face Africa
News18
Adrian de Wet turned state witness and will testify that he was forced under duress to throw the bodies into the pig enclosure. All charges against him will potentially be dropped if the court accepts his testimony.
The Times (UK)
BBC News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

This horrific case represents the brutal reality of racial violence that still plagues South Africa's farming communities. The deliberate disposal of human bodies to pigs shows the dehumanizing attitudes that persist decades after apartheid officially ended. Justice demands the harshest possible sentences.

Thuso van Zyl on X

Kronen Zeitung

New York Post

Narrative B

Farm murders affect both black and white South Africans and represent only 0.2% of the country's nearly 20,000 annual homicides, yet receive disproportionate attention that unnecessarily inflames racial tensions. The focus should be on South Africa's overall violent crime epidemic.

CNN

Mezha