Life for South African who fed worker to lions

[cool_chick]

www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-30-southafrica-lions_x.htm


Life for South African who fed worker to lions
PHALABORWA, South Africa (AFP) — A judge on Friday sentenced a white South African farmer to life in prison and his black accomplice to 12 years in jail for feeding a black farm worker to lions.
Mark Scott-Crossley was sentenced to life imprisonment for feeding a South African farm worker to lions.
By Siphiwe Sibeko, AP

Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, and laborer Simon Mathebula, 43, were in April found guilty of murdering Nelson Chisale, whose bloodied remains were found in a lion reserve near the famed Kruger National Park.

Judge George Maluleke of the Phalaborwa circuit court sentenced Scott-Crossley to life imprisonment but gave Mathebula 15 years, of which three years were suspended.

The state had called for life imprisonment for both men, citing the exceptionally gruesome nature of the crime that took place on Jan. 31, 2004, near the northeastern city of Hoedspruit.

Scott-Crossley, who minutes earlier had married one of his prison visitors at a nearby courthouse, showed no emotion as the sentence was read out at the hearing.

"We did expect a heavy sentence," Scott-Crossley told journalists following the sentencing. "We are sorry that the family didn't accept our offer of financial compensation. It was not an effort to try and bribe them, but we really feel sorry for them and we are going to fight the sentence."

About 100 people packed in the courtroom cheered and ululated after the sentence was read, while Chisale's niece Fetsang Jafta declared "I'm satisfied with the outcome."

Chisale, 41, had been fired two months earlier for apparently running a personal errand during work hours. When he returned to pick up some belongings, he was beaten with machetes, tied up, driven to a nearby lion reserve, and thrown over the fence.

Farm worker Robert Mnisi, who was accused along with Scott-Crossley and Mathebula but later turned state witness, testified that he heard Chisale scream as the lions devoured his body.

A third accused in the "lion feeding case," Richard Mathebula, who is apparently suffering from tuberculosis, will face trial separately due to ill health.

The start of the sentencing hearing was delayed for 30 minutes on Friday as Scott-Crossley tied the knot with Sim Strydom, whom he met just a few weeks ago when she visited him in prison.

Widely reported in the local press, the "lion trial" highlighted the dire conditions of many black laborers who live on farms in South Africa, more than a decade after the end of apartheid.

But before handing down the sentence, judge Maluleke said his ruling was based on the severity of the crime and not on the presumption that it was a racist killing. "The racial undertones in this case did not play a role in the conviction," he said. "It will also not play a role in the sentencing."

Labor Minister Membathisi Mdladlana had expressed his "shock" and "anger" over the murder while the main labor federation said the killing showed that many farmers treat black workers today as badly as they did during apartheid.

In one particularly brutal incident, a white farmer in eastern South Africa was sentenced to 25 years in 2001 for killing a black employee by tying a rope around his neck and dragging him along a gravel road behind a pick-up truck.

[techweenie]

Bill Bennett didn't testify for him?

:-P

[masraum]

The world is just a f'ed up place. THat's why I almost never watch the news. THis sort of story is their favorite type. The sad thing is that something like this happened in Texas a while back. Personally I think the only good racist/biggot is a dead one, but then that may make me similar to them, oh well, I can live with that.

In one particularly brutal incident, a white farmer in eastern South Africa was sentenced to 25 years in 2001 for killing a black employee by tying a rope around his neck and dragging him along a gravel road behind a pick-up truck.

[Joe Bob]

Except for the lion part....prolly not a whole lot different from what went on in the Rural American South for many years.....

[Mulhollanddose]

Why do I get the feeling there is a lot more to this story than the author cares to acknowledge?...It appears a racist story intended to foment racism to incite things like this...

WELKOM, South Africa - The chanting of "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer" at the funeral of the ANC member who coined the phrase is adding more fuel to the political fire here, as the attacks on white farmers continues unabated.

The ethnic cleansing of Southern Africa's commercial farm communities has taken the lives of 1,334 farmers, farm workers and their kin since 1994, the year the ANC took power. The farmers were killed most often in violent, organized attacks, always by young African males. Add to the death toll 12 farmers killed in Zimbabwe and four in Namibia. In 85 percent of the killings, not one item was stolen from the farms and farmhouses.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has called the farm murders of whites "the final stage of the revolution."

Break out the "necklace"...We got whities to kill!!!



http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/447.htm

[Mulhollanddose]

USAToday fomenting the murder of whites in South Africa!!!...Now you have a story.

[tabs]

Mzungu Aende Ulaya- Mwafrika Uhuru.....

[Joeaksa]

This has been going on for a long time, since SA became "liberated" so to speak.

There are about 40 million blacks, and about 4.5 million whites in the country. Does the phrase "Custers last stand" ring any bells? The white population has been moving out in droves for the last few years for this very reason.

I am not in any way defending what these three did in killing the worker, but like Mul says, I bet that there is a lot more to this story. I have several SA friends and after hearing some of their stories I could never risk my life nor my family by living in a country like this.

When we hear about killings and torture like this that are going on every day in SA you realize how bad it is there now for the whites living in the country. It also may have been just as bad for the blacks at one time. Neither makes it ok to do and as long as its out of control SA will continue to spiral down as a country. Its only a matter of time before the whites are all driven out and that helps no one.

JoeA

The killing of white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa is intensifying, as members of the ethnic minority attempt to draw international attention to their plight.

According to a journalist covering the killings in South Africa, since the Marxist ANC took power in 1994, 1,118 farmers have been murdered in the nation.

"Where is President Bush on this issue? Where is Colin Powell? I know this is blacks killing whites, so that is politically correct. The media don't seem to care. And apologists like Andrew Young are saying, 'Killing whites is OK; it's part of reversing colonialism,'" said Henda Wolfardt, a South African farmer who lives near Ventersdorp with her husband and two sons.

Wolfardt explained to WorldNetDaily, "We farmers are under siege. The communists want to drive us off the land. There is going to be a war in South Africa. In fact, it has already begun. The ANC has woken up the tiger in the Afrikaner. We see that the New World Order is a lie, and there is no place for white Christians or Orthodox Jews in it.

"A war has been launched against us. We have no choice but to fight for our very survival. The emerging non-white majority in what used to be the Western world is very race-conscious and filled in many places with anti-white rage. Farmers feed everyone, regardless of their culture or race. So why kill all the farmers, unless you want to start a genocide?" Wolfardt asked.

The Afrikaner are descendants of Dutch and other Europeans who settled South Africa in the 19th century.

Adrianna Stuijt, a Dutch journalist who was once a dedicated anti-apartheid activist, has been covering the farm killings in South Africa extensively.

Stuijt told WorldNetDaily, "Those tragically murdered farmers in Zimbabwe got huge international headlines, but thus far, the 1,118 murdered farmers in South Africa are being ignored – why would that be? I never like to use the purely racist terms 'white' or 'black' I instead prefer the ethnic minority references such as 'Afrikaner' or 'English-speaking South African,' or 'South African of Chinese origin,' 'Xhosa-speaking men,' etc. South Africa has more than 15 ethnic minority groups, and to refer to these people in such purely racist terms has become such an overwhelming habit of the ruling ANC that we do not to emulate this."

One of the worst farm attacks in recent days came July 27, when Johan le Grange and his wife – an impoverished Afrikaner couple in their 80s who lived with their daughter and two small grandchildren on a Witbank subsistence farmlet – were ambushed by eight armed Xhosa-speaking men at 8 p.m.

The frail Mr. le Grange was tortured before he was beaten to death. Mrs. le Grange was sadistically burnt with a hot iron but managed to survive the attack – although she remains in a severely traumatized condition, Witbank police have confirmed.

Mr. le Grange thus became the country's 1,118th murder victim in more than 6,000 farm attacks since apartheid ended in 1994.

After the murder of le Grange, the eight Xhosas (the majority tribe of the ruling ANC) then went to the le Granges' daughter's house nearby – on the same small holding – tied up the younger woman and her 4-year-old daughter and assaulted them repeatedly.

After a long period of torturing their two female victims, the attackers fled with their only means of transport – an old farm truck – as well as two small handguns and a few items of cheap costume jewelry. Police found the le Grange farm vehicle abandoned at a nearby squatter camp shortly afterwards. Investigators believe the daughter's quick thinking probably saved her tiny baby's life: She had managed to hide away the infant shortly before seeing the eight heavily armed attackers entering her house.

Stuijt told WorldNetDaily, "The details of this attack on a small holding near Witbank were so sadistic that one policeman could not contain his emotions while describing the scene on the telephone to our reporters. It is so very hard for reasonable people to explain why a large group of young, strong, heavily armed men would want to [do this]. What was the purpose? Personal gain must be ruled out here. Why all that sadistic torture? Why attack poor people? …

"The police said the torture of the 80-year-old, frail couple, their daughter and grandchildren – and especially of the women – had been incredibly sadistic, with hot irons, nails torn out, hours of burnings and beatings. Astonishingly, the attackers did not find the infant, which the mother had hidden away just before the eight men had rushed into her home. God had another plan for that babe, clearly. We posted an appeal from the police for information on the front page of www.censorbugbear.com. To date, it has not yet appeared in the mainstream South African news media except on Radio Pretoria broadcasts."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23871

[LeRoux Strydom]

With respect, you guys no nothing about living in this country, its history, nor the political/race/economic dynamics. If you rely on what you read in the media, or what you hear from "well-meaning" friends or acquaintances, you will get as skewed a picture of what I get when I read/listen to stories about the USA, and I compare it to what little I know about your country.

Judged against the rest of Africa, I actually have hope for SA, and I have been busting my gut for the last 25 years to help make the economy work here. Yes, crime is ever-present, as it is anywhere else in the world. For every bad news story in the media, there are a hundred good news stories and daily personal interactions with people from all walks of life that tell a different story of hope and courage. You will rarely if ever hear/read about these in the media.

Le Roux

[aways]

In my opinion these guys shouldn't have gotten life. They should have gotten the death penalty. However, I wonder why Mrs Mandella didn't get life (at least) for her involvement in putting burning tires around peoples necks and buring them to death? And I wonder why the roving bands of black south africans who go around raping, looting, and killing white south africans aren't getting life? I've been to south africa, it's on a rocket sled to hell. Once every white south african is either dead or driven out of the country, then it's be a paradise... yea, NOT!

[Willem Fick]

Tabs,

Originally posted by tabs
Mzungu Aende Ulaya- Mwafrika Uhuru.....

If you have room to spare, I'll be over in a jiffy - I'm quite a cook good cook...

Cheers!

Willem Fick

[Dan Mc Intyre]

Part of what I like about this board is its international mix of members. Too bad some of us don't really listen to their contributions.

Dan

[Jeff Higgins]

Thanks for the perspective, Le Roux. You are right in that it is very difficult to ascertain what life in another country is like through media reports alone. Hell, I think I have a pretty good handle on what life is like in America, but in following the daily news and what they choose to report, I don't recognize my own country. Sensationalism is the order of the day; it's what makes the vast majority turn on the tube or pick up the paper.

I have only one distant acquaintence who ever lived in South Africa. He was well "up the ladder" in a rather large bank; doing quite well for himself, living in Johanasburg (I'm sorry - spelling??). He lived in a very good neighborhood that was actually forced, in the end, to fence and gate itself off from the rest of town. It was advised by the police to not leave except to go to work, and then to have an armed escort to do so. Simple things the rest of us take for granted, such as grocery shopping, going to the movies, etc. were all impossible. A service was provided for the grocery shopping; everything else was mail-order, and most of the time it never made it to their house. He finally sent his wife and kids here, to New York actually, and remained there long enough to tie up loose ends on his business dealings. He literally walked away from his house and property. Let me emphasize this is not hearsay; I have spoken repeatedly with this man's mother, a very good friend of my wife's. He claims many, many successful people have been forced into a similar course of action. I had never heard of such a thing through any other source. Maybe not sensational enough to be widely reported, or reported at all.

[LeRoux Strydom]

Jeff, again I respect your view as seen through the experience of your acquaintance. However, may I give a counter-view and argue that many millions of people have very normal livelihoods here, going out for a dinner, to the movies, beach holidays, for a stroll through the park, visiting friends, off to the grocery store, going camping, off to the church/school/library etc. Countless executives of billion-dollar (yes billion dollar) corporations live and work here, were born here, and would not dream of leaving. Major global corporations like BMW, VW/Audi, Toyota, Daimler-Chrysler, BHP-Billiton, Anglo-American, Barclays, Mittal Steel etc etc are investing billions in this country, because the returns await the knowledgable and the patient. Yes, many people left for many reasons, and guess what, there are just as many returning for another variety of reasons.

Sure, many people may have had bad experiences, compared to their relatively safe lives elsewhere in the first world. But if you are prepared to adjust and be aware of the issues and how to effectively deal with them as you would do in most parts of the world today, you could have a very good life here.

I think the problem is that most westerners (read Europeans and Americans) tend to judge any place elsewhere in the world against very high standards, forgetting that the world today is actually a rather dangerous place, and not just in the physical sense. Neglecting to adjust for those circumstances often lead to drama and disappointment.

I have also temporarily lived elsewhere in the world when I was younger (Germany), but as someone who was born here, it would have to a whole lot worse before I would consider leaving for good.

I actually prefer to spend my time and energy trying to help fix what is wrong here, than to complain and whinge from the sidelines. Somehow I still believe in destiny.

L

[LeRoux Strydom]

BTW (back on topic), I also think these guys who threw the other guy to the lions deserve life with Bubba & friends....



L

[Mulhollanddose]

I think the lion feeder should get the death penalty, if it was true...I am just not quite sure if the guy that was the feed didn't threaten the guy with death, like has of late been pretty common of white farmers...If this was the case I would have probably acted similarly...Survival of the fittest and all.

[}{arlequin]

question is.... how do you make the *same* lion eat the convicted farmer?

[Mulhollanddose]

BLACK South Africans have begun a series of “symbolic” property invasions with the aim of pressing the government to speed the transfer of white-owned farms to them.
Supporters of the South African Communist party yesterday took over unused municipal land outside Brits, a town in North West province.

The Communists, who are in government with President Thabo Mbeki’s African National Congress, have called for similar demonstrations across the country to force the state to redistribute property to poor blacks.

The government has accused white farmers of delaying land reform by demanding exorbitant prices for their property. But, worried that they could be driven from their homes like their counterparts in Zimbabwe, white farmers have vowed to fight for their rights.

“It’s like a war out here,” said Gideon Meiring, who farms cattle and grain near the Zimbabwean border. “But no way will we allow a second Zimbabwe to happen in South Africa.”

Meiring is an official with the powerful Transvaal Agricultural Union, which represents many of the country’s 40,000 white farmers. Over the past 10 years hundreds have been murdered, and many others are struggling to stay in business since strict labour laws and higher land taxes were introduced.

I am beginning to have more and more sympathy for the farmer.



TimesOnlineUK