Aberdeen farmer, once accused of trying to kill Jacob Zuma, refused bail in sex trafficking case

3 Dec 2024

An Aberdeen farmer, who was briefly implicated in a far-right plot to assassinate former president Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s Mangaung conference in 2012, has been refused bail by the Makhanda High Court on charges of sex trafficking. The court heard that he also tried to escape from prison by paying R50,000.

Pleas by an Aberdeen farmer that he is facing bankruptcy due to his ongoing incarceration and that he needed to look after his animals and his farm, has been dismissed as grounds for bail by the Makhanda High Court.

The farmer, who cannot be named until he has pleaded to the charges against him, is facing multiple charges of rape and trafficking in persons, the illegal possession of ammunition, and assault. He has also been charged with flogging the women he attacked.

According to the judgment, the man also paid R50,000 to “escape” from prison, but this didn’t work out after another inmate told the investigating officer about the plan.

Two of the man’s previous bail applications were refused and the Makhanda High Court has now also dismissed the man’s application to appeal against those decisions.

In 2021, the man was charged with others of plotting to kill former president Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s 2012 Mangaung conference, but the charges against him were later withdrawn.

In an affidavit before court, the farmer said he was 41, a well-known resident in the Graaff-Reinet area and a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Aberdeen.

He owns his farm, but due to a protracted drought in the area, he suffered substantial stock losses and ran up debts with the local co-op.

“Owing to my incarceration, I was unable to timeously cultivate wheat or other crops. This resulted in considerable losses due to there being no current unharvested crops for the season’s market,” he said in his affidavit.

“The loss of an entire season cannot be recouped. Should my incarceration continue much longer, I will surely miss another season of planting and reaping a lucrative harvest. And so the devastating losses will recur year after year. In addition, tons of seeds are deteriorating and being infected by mites, thus being rendered worthless.”

He continued: “The upshot of this prospect is that I will forfeit the opportunity to earn an income from my crops, certain for the next season, and probably thereafter. My farms will go under, my income flow will cease, my children, my mother and my workers and their families will suffer direly; my animals will perish. The prospect is too ghastly to contemplate.”

He was arrested on 3 July 2023 and has been in custody for more than a year as an awaiting-trial prisoner.

‘Troubling aspect’

In what acting Judge Aaron Zono called a “troubling aspect”, the State highlighted that apart from sexual assault and trafficking charges, the man also faces a charge of intimidation.

“The victim indicated in a statement that she managed to get away from the farm. She went to stay with family members of the [farmer]. Whilst she was with them she was called by the [accused] and during the call he said he will fetch her by force and if she is keeping anything from him, [he] will shoot her in the head.

“Thereafter the family members requested that we must move the victim to a different address. She was then placed in a home of safety in Graaff-Reinet. Because the [accused] did not manage to get hold of the victim thereafter, he called her parents continuously trying to find out where she was.”

“These statements are worrisome and concerning. It is in the same affidavit where it is alleged that the appellant threatened one of the victims that he would shoot her. Upon investigations by the police it transpired that one of the women who also worked for the [accused] was found to have presumably committed suicide on the farm,” Zono said.

He said a witness in the case also obtained a protection order against the farmer. DM

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