South African Farm Worker Testifies That Women Were Fed to Pigs to Conceal Murders

A South African farm worker has told a court that he was forced by his employer to feed the bodies of two black women to pigs in an attempt to destroy evidence after they were shot.

Testifying before the Polokwane High Court, 21-year-old Adrian De Wet said his boss, Zachariah Johannes Olivier, ordered him to dispose of the victims’ bodies by throwing them into a pig enclosure. “When pigs are hungry enough, they’ll eat anything,” De Wet reportedly told the court.

De Wet admitted to firing shots alongside Olivier, the 60-year-old farm owner, during the incident that led to the deaths of Maria Makgato (45) and Lucia Ndlovu (34). The women were allegedly searching for food on the farm near Polokwane, in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province, in August 2024.

Olivier and another man, William Musora (50), are currently standing trial for murder. De Wet, who initially faced the same charges, became a state witness after prosecutors dropped the case against him. He claimed he acted under duress when ordered to help dispose of the bodies.

According to De Wet’s testimony, he and Olivier armed themselves with hunting rifles on the night of 17 August 2024, after suspecting trespassers were on the property. He said they opened fire after hearing voices, and later discovered the body of a woman lying face down.

The following morning, Olivier allegedly instructed De Wet to dump the woman’s body into a pig enclosure containing between eight and ten large pigs. A second body was discovered about 25 metres away the next day and was also thrown into the pigsty.

When they returned several days later, De Wet said, they found that the pigs had eaten large portions of flesh from the victims. Graphic images presented in court reportedly showed missing sections of the victims’ buttocks, faces, thighs, and shoulders.

Prosecutor Advocate George Sekhukhune asked De Wet why the bodies were placed in the pig enclosure. “We were disposing the evidence because when pigs are hungry enough, they’ll eat anything,” he replied.

De Wet also testified that Olivier destroyed the murder weapons by cutting the rifles into pieces with an angle grinder, burning the wooden parts, and dumping the remains and spent cartridges into a borehole.

Emotional scenes unfolded in court as the son of one of the victims wept openly, while Olivier was seen wiping away tears during De Wet’s testimony.

The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, reigniting racial tensions between black and white communities—especially in rural areas where most farmland remains owned by the white minority and black workers are often poorly paid.

Cross-examination of Olivier and Musora by defence lawyers is scheduled to continue next Wednesday.

Source: BBC News