WATCH | Man (80) arrested for helping bury murdered farmworker

A Free State doctor has confessed on camera that he helped bury a farmworker, allegedly killed by his grandson, in a shallow grave on his farm.

The doctor, from Kroonstad, revealed this in a video recorded by EFF members when they confronted him about the matter on Monday, forcing him to close his surgery.

According to the doctor, his grandson was hunting on the farm when he saw six men with knives allegedly stealing cables. The grandson alleged the men started to attack him.

“Yes, I know I did a wrong thing, I should have called the police, but if I didn’t bury him immediately, the jackals would have eaten him.”

When asked how he would feel had it been his grandson that was killed and buried in the shallow grave, his response was: “I would not feel very nice because it could have been him. Why did they attack him [grandson]?”

However, EFF provincial deputy chairperson, Thomas Macingwane, said what the elderly man said about his grandson being attacked was not true.

He said the information they got from an eyewitness was that the farmworker, a Lesotho national, had gone with other workers to confront the doctor's grandson on July 10 as they had not yet received their salaries. After the confrontation, the deceased and other three workers left, but he was not seen the following day.

When they went to report the matter to the police, they were told to wait for 48 hours. When he was still not back on July 13, they went back to report him missing.

Later, another worker went to the police to tell them that he knew what happened to the missing worker and that he was dead. However, police dismissed him, said Macingwane.

“He said he told them [police] the man was shot and that the doctor came with a TLB, dug a grave and told him to help throw the body inside [the hole],” Macingwane said.

“Apparently, the investigating officer said they were still investigating a missing person case. How does he [eyewitness] know he is dead and why were his allegations brushed aside as baseless?”

Macingwane said the eyewitness approached the EFF office in Kroonstad and reported to them what happened to the missing worker.

He said the EFF's provincial secretary then called the provincial police commissioner to report what the eyewitness had told them. The police commissioner then ordered police to go to the farm with the eyewitness to investigate.

We appeal to the community to allow investigations to unfold in an evidence-driven manner and to refrain from information that could compromise the case.

—  Free State police spokesperson Brig Motantsi Makhele

The man's body was exhumed from a shallow grave last week.

“We went to the doctor yesterday to picket outside his surgery and he confessed that the man was killed and buried. The grandson is nowhere to be found,” said Macingwane.

Sowetan reached out to Free State police spokesperson Brig Motantsi Makhele, who said the man's body was discovered on August 20 following a tip-off and that an 80-year-old man has since been arrested.

“A docket has been opened on charges of defeating the ends of justice. There is a possibility of additional arrest on this matter.”

He said they regard this as a very serious and sensitive case where a person lost his life. 

“We appeal to the community to allow investigations to unfold in an evidence-driven manner and to refrain from information that could compromise the case.

The doctor's surgery remained closed on Tuesday.

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