Two Black women were shot and killed, allegedly by a White farm owner and his supervisor, before their bodies were fed to pigs.
The brutal attack on the women from Sebayeng, Limpopo, in South Africa, has horrified the country and reignited debates over race, justice, and violence in rural communities.
The victims, Locadia Ndlovu and Maria Makgatho, were accompanied by a 47-year-old man — the husband of one of the women and neighbor to the other — when they entered the farm in Sebayeng to collect expired dairy products. The survivor told reporters he was also shot during the attack but managed to escape and was later hospitalized.
According to police, the women were killed on the farm before their bodies were disposed of in a pigsty. Their decomposed remains were discovered on August 20, 2024.
Authorities allege that 60-year-old farm owner Zachariah Olivier and 19-year-old farm supervisor Adrian De Wet carried out the killings.
They now face multiple charges, including two counts of murder, attempted murder, defeating the ends of justice, and illegal possession of firearms. Police said a third man, identified as Musoro, also faces immigration-related charges.
The accused appeared in Limpopo Polokwane High Court but did not enter pleas. Their hearing has been postponed until Thursday.
The killings have intensified public outrage, particularly given South Africa’s history of racial tensions surrounding land ownership and farm-related violence. In 2023, four men were charged with killing and burning three people accused of stealing sheep, while in 2019, two White farmers were convicted — and later acquitted — in the killing of a Black teenager accused of sunflower theft.
Farm-related murders remain rare compared to South Africa’s broader violent crime rates.
Nearly 20,000 murders were recorded between April and December last year, but the brutality of this case has struck a deep nerve in a nation still healing from apartheid-era wounds.
