Pictures of the three convicted men show them smiling broadly outside the court room before they were sent to prison for a long, long time...
Frans Oratile Motaung (30) is in die rondgaande hooggeregshof op Modimolle tot 25 jaar tronkstraf gevonnis vir die koelbloedige moord op Johannes (Chrisjan) Theunissen (88).
Samito (Sam) Mbalalale (29), 'n Mosambieker, is in die rondgaande hooggeregshof op Modimolle tot lewenslange tronkstraf gevonnis vir die koelbloedige moord op Johannes (Chrisjan) Theunissen (88).Hy het die vinniger getrek
Frank Motshabi (42) in die rondgaande hooggeregshof op Modimolle tot 25 jaar tronkstraf gevonnis vir die koelbloedige moord op Johannes (Chrisjan) Theunissen (88)
MURDERED/VERMOOR: Johannes (Chrisjan) Theunissen (88)
Familielede van Chrisjan Theunissen sit en luister hoe sy moordenaars in die rondgaande hooggeregshof in Modimolle gevonnis word.Hulle is van links Pieter van der Walt, Hannes Theunissen en Chrisjan du Plessis
Heavy sentences for three of the 5 killers of 88-year-old farmer Chrisjan Theunissen - pinned down on his bed while asleep: shot dead with his own .303 hunting rifle...the thugs were going to poach rhinos with it, but decided to shoot dead the old Boer instead.
#StopWhiteGenocideInSA
Statement that the conviction success rate for farm-murders and farm-attacks stood at about 24% after 2006, when the SA Police Service stopped archiving farm-murders and farm-attacks seperately...
24 Januarie 2016 Netwerk24 - pictures of Chrisjan Theunissen by Reverend Gustav Opperman from the photography series of the hermit farmer entitled 'Memories of a Bushveld Farm'.
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- Pictures by Deon Raath, Rapport Afrikaans weekly:
A lfetime in prison is the sentence handed out to Samito (Sam) Mbalalale (29), the Mozambican citizen who was found guilty in the Nylstroom magistrate's court for the cold-blooded murder of
farmer Johannes ("Oom Chrisjan') Theunissen (88). It was Mbalalale who pulled the trigger of the powerful .303 hunting rifle while the sleeping man was pinned down by two comrades.
He had pulled the trigger. Oom Chrisjan's family members sit in the courtroom listening how his killers were sentenced: left to right
Pieter van der Walt, Hannes Theunissen and Chrisjan du Plessis. Judge Frans Kgomo said in one of the most strongly-worded sentences for farm-killers, that 'attackers who murder
farmers and farm-workers, must get higher sentences 'because even the strongest sentences presently allowed, does not deter them'.
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The Rapport story by Sonja Carstens does not say whether anything was actually robbed from Theunissen's farm... Kgomo sentenced the three men for the 17 December 2013 murder of Chrisjan Theunissen in his bed on the farm Springbokvlei outside Thabazimbi, where he had farmed with cattle since 1939.
The 88-year-old Boer was pinned down by Frans Oratile Motaung, (30) and Frank Motshabi (42) while Sam Mbalalale (29) pulled the trigger of a .303 hunting rifle: a weapon which they meant to use to poach rhinos with.
Kgomo said that 'South Africans must know that the courts take their security seriously. Violent crimes in any forms can no longer be tolerated. Everyone has a constitutional right to be
safe - and even more so inside their own homes'.
Motaung and Motshabi were sentenced to an effective 25 years each in prison - Mbalalale a life-sentence.
The murdered farmer's nephew, also a farmer in the area, praised Mr Justice Kgomo's strong summary and -sentences meted out to the three killers - however he believes that 'the death sentence should be brought back'.
"Personally I would feel better if I could shot them 'vrek' like they shot oom Chrisjan vrek. Every farmer has to be alert every day - knowing that he could be next.
"I feel fear every time I have to climb from my bakkie to open a farm-gate or go and check a pump. I have great emphathy with the farmers in Parys who had beaten to death two suspected farm-killers.
"Farmers are helpless because justice is on the side of the attackers and this makes us bitter.'
South Africa scrapped the death-sentence in 1995.
Oom Chrisjan Theunissen started farming in 1937 with cattle. A day before he was murdered, he had lent R520 cash to his worker Oupa Boas Moraka and to Motaung.
Those two got on the phone to their comrades in Skierlik in Northwest with the message that 'Theunissen has to have a safe full of money because he was busy cleaning boreholes'.
Motshabi summonsed Mbalalale from Rustenburg to help him poach rhines. Seven men then decided to rather attack Theunissen. Five were arrested:
the state had to withdraw the case against Moraka because they 'did not have a prma-facie case against him' - and another comrade turned state-witness against his own mates.
Kgomo said in his summary that 'Moraka had been the brain behind the attack and should have been in the dock with his comrades.
Kgomo said to Mbalalale said he had 'shot dead a sleeping old man' without any regrets - purely out of greed.
"You came from Mozambique to South Africa to create a better life for yourself and your people, but instead to come and do crime here. You drag the good name of every foreigner
who wants to work in South Africa, through the mud. Why did you shoot Mr Theunissen? You could have hit him knock-out and plundered the homestead.
"Your modus-operandi indicates that you are persons who must be removed from society.'
He accepted the claim by Motaung and Motshabi that they had been 'afraid of Mbalalale - but ruled that 'this must be a lesson to your comrades that crime does not pay.'
"A life was taken as a result of something you had started, and you must take the responsibility for it.'
Public prosecutor Advocate Kobus Jacobs said that in 2014 and 2015 'seventy-three farm-murders were registered.
The South African Police Service stopped recording seperate statistics for farm-murders and farm-attackers in 2007, said Dr Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies.
-- Before 2007 the success-rate of prosecutions was 70 percent, he claimed.
. Afriforum's deputy ceo Ernst Roets said according to their information, the 'successful prosecutions for farm-murders have dropped to 24%.
It is being claimed that 'the SA Police Service has appointed a dedicated task-team in Limpopo to investigate farm murders in that province.
The National Prosecuting Authority has also been asked to appoint a team to prosecute farm-murders specifically - similar to the team which is dedicated to prosecute rhino-poachers.
Story headlined 'Straf hulle swaarder, pleit regter oor plaasmoorde' - by Sonja Carstens, Rapport:
Netwerk24.com (interpreted from original Afrikaans).
SCarstens@rapport.co.za
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UPDATE - 21 January 2016 NYLSTROOM HIGH COURT -- Three blacks found guilty of murdering excentric hermit Boer Johannes Christiaan "Chrisjan" Theunissen (88) on 17 December 2013
21 January 2016 - Thabazimbi/Nylstroom. 'Die Spoorsnyers' report on their facebook page that three black males were found guilty of the murder on the excentric Nylstroom Boer Chrisjan Theunissen in the High Court of Nylstroom.
https://www.facebook.com/175545635797946/photos/pcb.1101054376580396/1101054323247068/?type=3&theater
It was reported by SAPS colonel Ronel Otto at the time of the murder that five black males had attacked the elderly farmer inside his homestead, rushed to his bedroom where he was asleep, and
shot him dead. Apparently they got a hunting rifle from his safe and a cellphone. The excentric unmarried Bushveld farmer was recorded through much of his adult life by art-photographer, Rev Gustav Opperman, publishing two seperate photography-series of the hermit-farmer entitled "Memories of a Bushveld Farm'.
It was reported that he was murdered on 17 December 2013 -- shot dead in his bed at his Springbokvlei Bushveld-farm located along the Sentrum/Lephalale Road, outside Thabazimbi.
The elderly, excentric 'hermit Boer' lived alone at his farm. Congratulations for a job well done to ex-colonel Sakkie Louwrens who led the investigation and the SAPS members who were involved in getting the killers into court and sentenced.
first report: https://mobile.facebook.com/boerekrisisaksie/photos/a.178568022169751.48293.116298045063416/786075494752331/?type=3&p=50
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Murdered Boer-hermit farmer Chrisjan Theunissen 's funeral service and burial on Sat Dec 21 2013 from Thabazimbi:
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-- The excentric unmarried Bushveld farmer was recorded through much of his adult life by art-photographer, Rev Gustav Opperman, publishing two seperate photography-series of the hermit-farmer entitled "Memories of a Bushveld Farm'.
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Family member Jacky Theunissen writes on rev. Opperman's FB site: "Chrisjan's burial takes place on Saturday December 21 2013. He had many friends and family who loved him deeply. His two dogs already have a new home where they are loved and cared for."
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On Dec 17 2013, reverend Opperman published the first sad announcement of Oom Chrisjan's cruel murder on his facebook page, writing:
" Chrisjan Theunissen, the Bushveld hermit, last night became the latest statistic in a Farm Murder.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479914885379069&set=t.1605519092&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/gustavopperman
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Dec 17 2013 It was reported that Afrikaner farmer Johannes Christiaan Theunissen 88, was shot dead yesterday in his bed at his Springbokvlei farm: Sentrum/Lephalale Road, Thabazimbi - nobody arrested: The elderly, excentric 'hermit farmer' lived alone at his farm. It is believed that the killers gained access to the farm and shot him dead in his bed. As far as is known at the moment nothing was robbed. The details of how he was found and how many attackers there, are still being awaited.
Sentrum/Lepalale pad, distrik Thabazimbi
URL - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boere-Krisis-Aksie-BKA/116298045063416?fref=ts
More details are being awaited.
#StopWhiteGenocideInSA
