Two farm security guards sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for murder
Date Published:
2024/09/23
Description Details:

Media Statement
South African Police Service
Office of the Provincial Commissioner Northern Cape

HARTSWATER - Two farm security guards were recently sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for killing a man they suspected of stealing watermelons on a farm near Magogong, Hartswater.

On 02 January 2019, the security guards noticed two men on the farm and assumed they had come to steal watermelons.

The pair was apprehended, and one of the men was tied up and placed in a store room.

Pieta Modingwana (29) was shot twice in his abdomen as he fled to his shack in Magogong, Hartswater.

Police were informed by the community, and Modingwana was transported to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.

The Hartswater police continued to follow up on information and found the male tied up in a storeroom on the farm.

The farm owner and the two security guards were subsequently arrested.

The farm owner, Dawie Oosthuizen (62), died of natural causes while out on bail on 20 December 2022.

The two accused, Kabelo Edward De Bruin (27) and Goitsemang Piet Muller (37), were both sentenced in the Kimberley High Court on 18 September 2024 as follows:

  • Murder: 25 years’ imprisonment
  • Kidnapping: 10 years’ imprisonment
  • Assault GBH: three years’ imprisonment
  • Illegal possession of firearm: five years’ imprisonment
  • Illegal possession of ammunition: one year imprisonment.

The sentences will run concurrently.

The SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola commended the Investigation Officer, Detective Warrant Officer Tiisetso Chabeli and the Hartswater Detective team for their hard work that ensured no impunity is granted to the perpetrators of this heinous crime. She also warned the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.

Ends

Enquiries:
Lt Col Sergio Kock
082 494 9982

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Additional content:
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    SAPS Hartswater Investigation Officer, Detective Warrant Officer Tiisetso Chabeli