Farmer Bertus Moolman 68 denies shooting dead anyone with shotgun-pellets: "The SAPS were also shooting at the community'.
Beeld Satuerday 31 Aug 2013 FOCHVILLE. The farmer who was charged with shooting dead two black illegal mineworkers and injuring a third man during violent rioting on his farm when he and his workers were put under a rain of stones by the rioters -- said in a statement to the court during his approved bail application for R18,000, that
' he would be very surprised if any of my shotgun pellets killed anyone. The SAPS were also firing shots at the community'.
Moolman's legal counsel read his statement in court, as follows:
"I fired six shots with my shotgun - which was loaded with small-gauge pellets. Three shots were fired into the ground in front of me, and two shots were fired up into the air".
"I would be very surprised if anyone was shot dead by my firearm.' The statement continued that the SAPS members on the scene fired shots directly into the 'community'.
Moolman was granted bail of R15,000 by magistrate Sam Muedi - provided he did not return to his farm and that he hand in his passport. He has to appear again in the same court on November 29.
He has been renting out land mainly to mineworkers who erect their own shanties on the land.
SAPS captain Eric Mashaba, the investigating officer, told the court that 'the SAPS asked Moolman at the scene while he fired the five shots because the situation was under control'.
Eyewitnesses told Mashaba that 'Moolman fired shots at the community."
The SAPS - according to the investigating officer - told the court that the SAPS had been called by 'community members who told them that Mr Moolman and of his workers had allegedly assaulted a man in one of the shebeens he runs.
The statements from residents was that 'SAPS members saw a man bleeding and begging for help' inside the shebeen when they looked in.
Investigating officer Mashaba said 'the man couldn't stand on his own two feet'. "A group of people were massing outside the shebeen
and some of the women 'screamed with joy' when the man was carried out by the police.'
Mashaba said 'a member of the community threw a stone and the police told the people not to throw stones and no more stones were thrown'.
Apparently at this stage Moolman 'fired several shots with his shotgun, said Mashaba.
He said during cross-examination by defence-counsel that 'they only found shotgun-shells at the scene'.
It's not known if the two dead men and the injured man 's injuries were examined for remains of bird-shot or other bullet fragments by the SAPS forensic department. This would be crucial to determine whether they had been shot by birdshot or by police-bullets.
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TRANSLATED FROM AFRIKAANS REPORT ON:
http://www.beeld.com/nuus/2013-08-31-boer-s-hy-het-donshael-gebruik
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PREVIOUS REPORTS:
Afrikaner farmer Bertus Moolman allegedly shoots dead two black men in Fochville; injures a third: witnessed by a police contingent, the Afrikaner allegedly allegedly fired five shots into a rioting, stone-throwing crowd who were threatening him and his workers, said SAPS:
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Monday 26 Aug 2013 - In an stone-throwing altercation between socalled 'tenants' and Afrikaner farmer Bertus Moolman on a farm next to the Bank Road outside Fochville, at the Carletonville mining region) he allegedly fired shots with a shotgun, shooting dead two black men and injuring a third who were throwing stones at Moolman and his workers. It is believed that the violent altercation took place over purported damage one of his victims had allegedly done to one of Mr Moolman's shebeens and spaza-shops. The police said Mr Moolman owns 'several spaza shops and shebeens' and rents out space to about 2,000 black squatters on his farm - mostly mineworkers.
SAPS lt.col Hennie Maass of the Fochville SAPS confirmed that Mr Moolman will be charged with two murders and attempted murder. The shots were fired after Mr Moolman went to talk to a man together with his worker. One of the workers had allegedly assaulted one man with a stock and in response, a group of 'tenants' started throwing stones at them. "Moolman allegedly fired five shots at the men who are tenants on his farm,' said lt-col Maass. This was witnessed by a contingent of SAPS-members who had been called to the farm by Mr Moolman, he said.There had already been unrelatedunrest at the farm the previous weekend when a black man was murdered by an unknown person and people became 'riotous' and packed a stone-barrier on the road on Sunday, said the police officer. One of Moolman's shebeens (pub) was also damaged on that day.
Moolman told Beeld newspaper that he was forced to shoot in self-defence. "Some of the tenants became riotous when we went to talk to the man who, we'd been told, had damaged the shebeen,' he said. "The crowd threw us with stones and if I hadn't shot, we would all have died.' He said he carried a 9mm pistol and his shotgun with him.
Beeld questioned Louis Nel, a Fochville resident who informed the Afrikaans daily newspaper that Mr Moolman had been renting out land for housing mineworkers for the past twenty years. "They raise their own structures. It creates a lot of problems for the community, as the miners then sublet the land again to others,' said Mr Nel.
They have even built 'an informal electrical substation from stones, making 'several connections to the Eskom power cables'.
Beeld also quoted one of Mr Moolman's tenants as saying that there had been several rapes and thefts in the area. "We are holding a protest march about this, we are sick and tired of it,' she said.
Eighty-year-old farmer Danie Oberholzer's erf borders Moolman's land.
"I don't feel safe and I am feeling so hopeless because I cannot afford to move as my land isn't worth anything, it's such a mess,' he told Beeld. http://www.beeld.com/nuus/2013-08-26-huurders-geskiet-boer-vas
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