Horror at farmer's murder
2007-08-27 08:54
Nathi Olifant and Elizabeth Atmore
Pietermaritzburg - The KZN Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) has expressed its "horror" at the brutal murder of a newly widowed 63-year-old woman, who was strangled to death last Thursday and thrown off a Bulwer cliff.
Kwanalu head of security Koos Marais said: "Kwanalu calls on the government to start taking drastic steps to combat senseless crime such as this".
Marais said the union was horrified "at this brutal attack on a defenceless elderly lady", but lauded the police for their swift action in arresting the three suspects.
The three men arrested in connection with the murder allegedly included a former security guard on the farm.
Lynette Oosthuizen, a National Chicks chicken farmer, was murdered and her body thrown 200 metres over the cliff after she apparently opened her door to the suspects after recognising the former security guard.
It is alleged the men killed Oosthuizen before bundling her body into her bakkie and throwing her body off the cliff, although police are still trying to determine exactly where she was murdered, and whether she was in fact still alive when her body was dumped.
Her body was recovered from the bottom of a Bulwer cliff on Saturday.
Arrests followed tip-off
The three suspects were arrested following a tip-off to police on Friday morning by an Imbali informant who was suspicious of a man trying to sell a cream Mitsubishi bakkie with Impendle registration plates.
The resident posed as an interested buyer and was able to delay the man until police arrived and discovered the car was registered to Oosthuizen. The man was also in possession of a wallet belonging to Oosthuzien.
After further questioning, the police discovered that Oosthuizen had been murdered and a second suspect led police to the dump site, some 60km away from Oosthuizen's farm.
A third suspect was arrested in the Incwadi area on Saturday morning. He was in possession of goods stolen from Oosthuizen.
Slippers near edge of cliff
Oosthuizen's body was found on Friday evening by Inspector Jack Haskins of the Midlands Search and Rescue Dog Unit, but the recovery was called off because of poor weather conditions.
It took the team nearly four hours the following morning to retrieve the body, as shocked residents looked on.
One of Oosthuizen's slippers was lying near the edge of the cliff.
Oosthuizen's son Adriaan said he was too grief-stricken to talk to The Witness.
Adriaan's wife said she had stopped in at the farm on Friday afternoon as her son needed to use the bathroom, but there was no answer to their knocking and the door was locked. She said Oosthuizen's small dog was barking, which she found odd as Oosthuizen never left the house without the dog.
Oosthuizen lived alone in the house after her husband died three months ago.
Both the police and the Director of Public Prosecution were due to prepare for a quick confession over the weekend and the suspects are to appear in Impendle Magistrate's Court on Monday.