[I am very suspicious of this trial because of its political links. The original news story that went around the world was that a White Farmer fed his black worker, alive, to a Lion… Then the South African Communist Party and African National Congress supporters went wild… and staged open protests… with various anti-Boer, anti-Afrikaner slogans. Clearly, this had been seized for propaganda and political purposes by our black leaders…

The FACTS… then turned out to be that a White Building contractor and TWO BLACKS were arrested for this murder.

Suddenly… as the trial opens… one of the blacks… now changes his story. I can’t help wondering if there has been some political pay-off, and political manipulation of this story… and whether we will see the two blacks being bought off and turning on the White guy?

This promises to be interesting. I am curious to see if there is any indication of political meddling here in this trial because it is so rich in propaganda with which to attack whites, especially farmers, more especially Afrikaans farmers. They surely can’t pass up on this one… Even though the facts don’t quite match their propaganda line… But… it will be interesting to see if they change the “facts” as this goes along. Jan]

Phalaborwa – The trial of the three men accused of throwing a man to his death in a lion’s den was adjourned on Monday morning when one of the accused pleaded guilty, contrary to his lawyer’s instructions.

Richard “Doctor” Mathebula, 41, told the packed Phalaborwa circuit court: “I would say I plead guilty because I followed instructions given to me by my employer.”

Under the impression that his clients would plead not guilty to the crime, Mathebula’s lawyer Matthews Kekana asked for a break to consult with his clients.

Judge George Maluleke, assisted by assessors Kate Choshi and Elphus Seemela, agreed and adjourned the case to enable the three accused men to confer with their lawyers.

Mathebula and co-accused Simon Mathebula, 43, (not related) and Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, are accused of murdering Nelson Chisale, 41, at Hoedspruit on January 31 last year.

According to the indictment, Chisale was fired in November 2003 and went to the farm to collect his belongings. He entered through a security gate and went to Richard Mathebula. After a discussion, Mathebula and Simon Mathebula allegedly hit him with pangas and tied him up with ropes.

The State alleges that Scott-Crossley was called to the scene. He allegedly pointed a firearm at Chisale, who was then loaded onto a bakkie. He was thrown into the lion camp at the Mokwalo white lion project near Hoedspruit.

Only the skull, broken leg bones and a finger of Chisale, were found in the lion enclosure during a search after neighbours had reported him missing.

The post-mortem found that Chisale was “mauled by lions”.

“We did not do this intentionally,” Richard Mathebula told the court when he was asked to plead.

Simon Mathebula said: “It’s not clear to me about the murder because I only heard about the person having died when I was arrested.”

Maluleke said all the accused would get ample opportunity during the trial to explain their plea.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/New…/p>