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.

Much of the testimony revolved around whether Scott-Crossley, aged 37, ordered the killing - as his workers claimed - and whether Chisale was alive when thrown to the lions.

Some 23 witnesses and a variety of forensic experts gave evidence, which included shreds of Chisale’s bloodstained shirt and trousers. The lions left only a few bones, part of his skull and the end of one finger.

The trial opened amid protests that the killing was a racial attack in a country still coming to terms with its apartheid past. The victim was black and the farm owner who attacked him is white. The case also highlighted the currents of violence that run through impoverished rural areas, as well as the harsh treatment meted out to farm workers, who are usually black or mixed-race, by their bosses, who are usually white.The trial of a third suspect was postponed after he fell sick with tuberculosis. A fourth suspect turned state witness and has been promised indemnity from prosecution. There was heavy security in the courtroom, which was searched for bombs and other weapons.

Scott-Crossley’s lawyer, Johann Engelbrecht said his client did not take part in the assault and merely helped dispose of the body after being threatened by one of the attackers. Engelbrecht had said that, at most, his client was guilty of accessory after the fact to culpable homicide.

The State Prosecution contended that Scott-Crossley masterminded the murder and acted with premeditation when he ordered his workers to load Chisale into the back of his truck.