Gran, worker killed on smallholding
2011-05-06 10:06
Marietie Louw-Carstens, Beeld
Johannesburg - The badly-beaten bodies of a 70-year-old grandmother and an employee have
been found on a smallholding in the Lephalale (Ellisras) region in Limpopo.
Antjie
Parkin's body was discovered in her house on Tuesday, while the blood-covered
body of Thomas Tshabalala, 45, who had worked for her son, Ben Wessels, for several
years, was found by trackers under debris on the banks of the Mogol River.
Parkin
lived in a house close to her son and daughter-in-law on the smallholding about
40km from Lephalale. She was alone during the day when her family went to work.
Annelie
Wessels, Parkin’s daughter-in-law, said on Thursday that her husband had found
his mother’s body on Tuesday afternoon.
He came
home between 16:00 and 17:00 and went to the main bedroom of their home, where
he smelled something like an electrical fire. “He thought he had forgotten to
switch off the electric blanket. Then he saw the angle grinder next to the bed.
The safe was open.”
The angle grinder
was used to cut open the safe. A firearm was stolen from it.
Beaten
beyond recognition
Wessels
immediately ran to his mother’s house and found her on the carpet of her
bedroom.
"She
was beaten beyond all recognition and the strangulation marks on her neck were clearly
visible. No one should have to see their mother like that,” Annelie said.
The police
were called while the family wondered where Tshabalala was. His body was only
found later that night.
"His
head was bashed in and he was strangled. He was also stabbed with a knife,”
said Annelie.
According
to a statement by TAU-SA North, a tracking team found “the tracks of the social
terrorist” about 10km from Lephalale.
"South
Africa is falling into a maze of blood, power and hate,” read the statement.
It looked
like the murderer was picked up by someone in a car.
By late on
Thursday night no one had been arrested.
Parkin will
be buried on Tuesday. She is survived by her two sons, daughters-in-law and six
grandchildren.
No funeral
arrangements have been made yet for Tshabalala.
