Pretoria – Three farmers have been sentenced by the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria, to life in prison for the murder of a farm dweller.
On Friday, 27 March 2026, the court sentenced 29-year-old Louise Coetzee, 36-year-old Jaco Wessels Kemp, and 38-year-old Gert Frederik van der Westhuizen to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of Dumisani Phakathi, a farm dweller.
The court further declared all three accused unfit to possess firearms and ordered them to surrender all firearms, ammunition, licences, authorisations, and permits to the investigating officer.
Evidence before the court shows that on 16 September 2023, the three farmers were having a braai at the chicken farm in Mamokgalieskraal.
At approximately 16h00, they saw Phakathi walking past the farm gate on his way to collect water from a nearby furrow, which community members commonly used.
The three farmers accosted Phakathi before assaulting him.
They then dragged him into a storage facility inside the chicken farm, where the assault continued until the farm dweller succumbed to his injuries.
In the early hours of 17 September 2023, at approximately 02h00, Kemp and Coetzee were stopped by police during a stop-and-search operation on the R511 towards Brits while driving a bakkie.
The vehicle was loaded with black refuse bags.
During the search, police noticed human legs protruding from underneath the bags.
Upon further inspection, they discovered the bloodied body of the deceased, with his head covered in plastic.
Kemp and Coetzee were immediately arrested at the scene.
Van der Westhuizen handed himself over to the police on 19 September 2023 after investigations linked him to the offence.
In court, all three accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and to shifted blame onto one another.
However, the State Prosecutor, Advocate Lawrence More, presented compelling evidence through State witnesses, proving the State’s case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In mitigation of sentence, the accused requested the court to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence because of the time they had already spent in custody since their arrest, and that they have children to take care of.
However, advocate More argued for life imprisonment because the trio killed the farm dweller for no reason.
Phakathi was killed in an inhumane and cruel manner, his body placed in rubbish bags in an attempt to throw it in a dumping site.
Adv More also read into the record the Victim Impact Statements, facilitated by Court Preparation Officer Lebogang Lebese, where the sister of the deceased expresses that she no longer trusts white people because of the incident.
In delivering the sentence, the judge agreed with the state that the three accused showed no remorse for the offence; they killed a man for no apparent reason.
Therefore, the only conclusion he can derive from the killing is that it was racially motivated.
“The National Prosecuting Authority welcomes the sentence and reiterates its commitment to ensuring accountability for violent crimes, particularly those committed against vulnerable members of society,” said spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.
