Tempers flare in murder trial of farmer and his son

EMOTIONS ran high in the Pretoria High Court during the murder trial of a farmer and his son yesterday‚ with the judge compelled to remind officers of the court to maintain decorum.

Schalk Myburgh‚ 56‚ and his son‚ also named Schalk‚ 30‚ allegedly assaulted neighbouring farmer Muraga Mavula in Brits‚ North West‚ before driving over him with their vehicle on the evening of December 28 2015.

Mavula’s widow‚ Annah‚ 55‚ was under cross-examination when Advocate Jennifer Cronje, for the defence, interjected as she was answering her question‚ demanding that she answered yes or no.

Visibly irritated state prosecutor Advocate Adele Janse van Vuuren shot up and objected to Cronje’s interjecting before the witness could finish her answer.

Presiding judge Tshifhiwa Maumela pleaded for calm‚ saying “we need to remain calm and‚ as officers of the court‚ maintain the decorum. I do not have to teach you that”.

The judge also turned to Mavula’s widow and explained that as much as the matter was difficult for her‚ she should remain calm and answer questions directly so that the court could hear all the evidence.

On that fateful evening‚ Mavula went out with his two teenage sons to look for a missing goat.

His widow has testified that, moments later, her daughter received a call from her father who said “the white people are killing me”.

She testified that she drove to go look for him and later noticed her husband’s bakkie parked by the side of the road‚ with a dead goat nearby and the body of her husband sprawled metres away.

Myburgh and his son‚ out on R500 bail each‚ have pleaded not guilty to the murder.

The defence’s case is that the two were on their way home when they found men with the carcasses of two dead animals.

They confronted Mavula and asked who owned the animals, but a fight broke out.

The Myburghs claimed they had left after the tussle.

The postmortem report said the cause of his death was “blunt force‚ multiple injuries”.