Nhlanhla Dladla (22) and Mzwandile Magubane (21), together with accomplices, Colin Maphalala and Velaphi Magubane, are alleged to have murdered the victims on 21 July this year, in a robbery gone wrong on Sherwood Farm in KZN’s Kamberg Valley. According to The Witness, the charges against the accused are three counts of murder, one of attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances, one of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and two of assault to do grievous bodily harm.
The Witness reported that the assailants also allegedly assaulted two others in the robbery, namely Bonginkosi Mhlongo and Innocent Linyane.
Soon after the arrests of the four, Maphalala was shot dead by police after trying to escape from custody at the nearby Mooi River Police Station, while Magubane has reportedly turned state witness. “We’re very happy with the sterling work that the police have done on this case,” Lorraine Karg’s husband, dairy farmer, Neville, told Farmer’s Weekly.
“I think that all that the farming community asks for is that the sentence meted out be fitting to the crime,” said Koos Marais of the KZN Agricultural Union’s (Kwanalu) Security Desk. “For too long, the victims of crime have also been the victims of a justice system that favours the criminal.”
