Jaco Wessels Kemp (36), Louise Coetzee (29), and Gert Frederik van der Westhuizen (38) were sentenced for the murder of Dumisani Phakathi in September 2023.
Phakathi was assaulted by the three men until he died. His body was loaded onto a bakkie along with trash to be disposed of. They were caught when police stopped the vehicle and discovered the body.
βOn 16 September 2023, the three men were having a braai at a chicken farm in Mamogaleskraal near Brits when Phakathi walked past the farm gate on his way to collect water from a nearby furrow, which community members commonly used as a water source.
The three approached him and assaulted him. They then dragged him into a storage facility where the assault continued until he succumbed to his injuries,β said Lumka Mahanjana, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority.
βIn the early hours of the next morning, Kemp and Coetzee were stopped by police during a stop-and-search operation on the R511 towards Brits. The vehicle was loaded with black refuse bags. During the search, police noticed human legs protruding from underneath the bags.
They discovered the bloodied body of the deceased. His head was covered in plastic. Kemp and Coetzee were arrested at the scene.β
Van der Westhuizen handed himself over to the police after they linked him to the murder. In court, all three accused pleaded not guilty and blamed each other.
In delivering the sentence, Judge Mudunwazi Samuel Makamu said that the three showed no remorse for the offence and killed a man for no apparent reason. Therefore, the only conclusion he could derive from the killing was that it was racially motivated.
Makamu dismissed leave to appeal in respect of all three men.
