Two convicted for murder of man thrown to the lions

A SOUTH AFRICAN farmer and one of his employees were found guilty of murder yesterday for attacking a farm worker with machetes and throwing him into a lion enclosure, bringing to an end a case that rattled a country long accustomed to violence and crime.

Delivering his verdict after a three-month trial, Judge George Maluleke told a packed and tense courtroom in the northern town of Phalaborwa that Mark Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula were guilty of murder. The two men had both said they were innocent and tried to blame each other for the January 2004 killing.

The victim, Nelson Chisale, 41, was attacked when he returned to Scott-Crossley’s farm to collect some belongings after his dismissal. He was beaten with machetes, tied up and then driven in Scott-Crossley’s truck to a breeding reserve for white lions in a nearby village, where he was thrown over the fence.